Hebrews 10:24

Far too often, people turn a good situation into slavery by ignoring wise boundaries of personal freedom. A godly accountability partner can help you enjoy privilege without abusing it. The benefits are plentiful:

Clearer direction. Honesty about faults and failures will open you to receive right counsel and encouragement. This process will increase your potential to do and become all that God has in mind for you.

Increased integrity. If you have to give an account to somebody, you’ll be honest and transparent. Even when the truth hurts, the result is heightened integrity.

Better stewardship. Accounting for the way you use money, time, or talent makes you careful not to waste those resources.

Protection against excess. As children of God, we are free in Christ, but an accountability partner keeps us balanced and guards us from taking liberties.

Healthy self-examination. Another person can often point out what we cannot see in ourselves. When we allow someone to be an accurate mirror of our faults, we’re in a better position to make improvements.

Safeguard against unwise relationships. If you have to give an account of where you go and which people you spend time with, you’ll be more likely to avoid problematic places and relationships.

Unbridled freedom may seem like a great blessing, but it can be a recipe for disaster. Do you give account to anybody for the way you handle money, time, and relationships? If not, consider inviting a trustworthy Christian to fill that role. Taking this step reveals a heart that longs to please God.

 In 1952 philosopher Mortimer Adler co-edited a fifty-five volume series for Encyclopedia Britannica titled The Great Books of the Western World. Overseeing a staff of ninety, the editors created a diverse index of topics containing selections from many of the finest thinkers in the history of Western Civilization. Upon completion, Adler was asked why the work included more pages under the subject of God than any other topic. He replied matter-of-factly that it was because more consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from any other basic question.

What we do with the subject of God is a far-reaching choice, defining life, informing death, shaping everything. The one who lives as though there is no God lives quite differently than the one who lives confidently that there is a God. It is a subject of consequence because it reaches everything and everyone; whether mindfully or indifferently, a decision is always made.  

 Through avenues of every emotion known to humankind, the Psalms make the astounding claim that God not only exists, but that God is present and can be found. In victory and defeat, illness and poverty, health and prosperity, the psalmist maintains that it is God who gives all of life meaning, that God alone answers the deepest and darkest questions of life whether in the depths or from the highest vantage. 

 Calling to the multitudes, crossing lines of status and allegiance, the psalmist pleads for care regarding a subject that concerns all. Like Adler, the psalmist makes it clear that what is being communicating is of consequence. “Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor together… I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.”(1) This riddle the psalmist wants to bring to the attention of all is a riddle forever before humankind. It is a riddle to which all must diligently attend but many wholeheartedly ignore.  Fittingly, the Hebrew word for “riddle” has also been translated “dark saying” or “difficult question.” 

 The psalmist continues, “When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes for ever, their dwelling-places to all generations, though they named lands their own. Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.”

 Most of us go about life as if we know what we are doing, but what is the purpose of it all? Some accumulate wealth, others remain in poverty, some live well and others live wickedly, but all are destined for the grave. The one who claims there is no God in life, so claims emptiness in death. But then is life also empty? Again we return to the riddle of the psalmist: What, then, is the point of it all? 

 Solving the riddles of life and death, like religion and politics at a social gathering, means, for many, changing the subject. As Woody Allen once quipped, “It’s not that I am afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” But that our lives are fleeting awakens a sense of urgency, a sense of inquiry. That life is fleeting, though inarguably full of meaning, is either a peculiar contradiction or a hint that there is more to come.

 Even so, for the Christian death remains something of a mystery. For we know that death is the last great door through which we must walk, the mark of a broken world. Yet we know also that through death God has declared the end of that broken hold on our lives, that the one who loses his life will save it, and that by Christ’s death the Spirit works Christ’s life in us. As C.S. Lewis once said of the Christian, “Of all men, we hope most of death; yet nothing will reconcile us to…its ‘unnaturalness.’ We know that we were not made for it; we know how it crept into our destiny as an intruder; and we know Who has defeated it.” In the riddle of life and death the psalmist expounds this certainty of God’s action. “But God will ransom my soul from the power of the grave, for he will receive me.”

 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. 
(1) See Psalm 49.

Morning “The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.” / Galatians 5:1

This “liberty” makes us free to heaven’s charter–the Bible. Here is a choice
passage, believer, “When thou passest through the rivers, I will be with
thee.” You are free to that. Here is another: “The mountains shall depart, and
the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee”; you are
free to that. You are a welcome guest at the table of the promises. Scripture
is a never-failing treasury filled with boundless stores of grace. It is the
bank of heaven; you may draw from it as much as you please, without let or
hindrance. Come in faith and you are welcome to all covenant blessings. There
is not a promise in the Word which shall be withheld. In the depths of
tribulations let this freedom comfort you; amidst waves of distress let it
cheer you; when sorrows surround thee let it be thy solace. This is thy
Father’s love-token; thou art free to it at all times. Thou art also free to
the throne of grace. It is the believer’s privilege to have access at all
times to his heavenly Father. Whatever our desires, our difficulties, our
wants, we are at liberty to spread all before him. It matters not how much we
may have sinned, we may ask and expect pardon. It signifies nothing how poor
we are, we may plead his promise that he will provide all things needful. We
have permission to approach his throne at all times–in midnight’s darkest
hour, or in noontide’s most burning heat. Exercise thy right, O believer, and
live up to thy privilege. Thou art free to all that is treasured up in
Christ–wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It matters not
what thy need is, for there is fulness of supply in Christ, and it is there
for thee. O what a “freedom” is thine! freedom from condemnation, freedom to
the promises, freedom to the throne of grace, and at last freedom to enter
heaven!

Evening “For this child I prayed.” / 1 Samuel 1:27

Devout souls delight to look upon those mercies which they have obtained in
answer to supplication, for they can see God’s especial love in them. When we
can name our blessings Samuel, that is, “asked of God,” they will be as dear
to us as her child was to Hannah. Peninnah had many children, but they came as
common blessings unsought in prayer: Hannah’s one heaven-given child was
dearer far, because he was the fruit of earnest pleadings. How sweet was that
water to Samson which he found at “the well of him that prayed!” Quassia cups
turn all waters bitter, but the cup of prayer puts a sweetness into the
draughts it brings. Did we pray for the conversion of our children? How doubly
sweet, when they are saved, to see in them our own petitions fulfilled! Better
to rejoice over them as the fruit of our pleadings than as the fruit of our
bodies. Have we sought of the Lord some choice spiritual gift? When it comes
to us it will be wrapped up in the gold cloth of God’s faithfulness and truth,
and so be doubly precious. Have we petitioned for success in the Lord’s work?
How joyful is the prosperity which comes flying upon the wings of prayer! It
is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the
door of prayer; then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations. Even when
prayer speeds not, the blessings grow all the richer for the delay; the child
Jesus was all the more lovely in the eyes of Mary when she found him after
having sought him sorrowing. That which we win by prayer we should dedicate to
God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel. The gift came from heaven, let it go to
heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it, let devotion consecrate it.
Here will be a special occasion for saying, “Of thine own have I given unto
thee.” Reader, is prayer your element or your weariness? Which?

For this child I prayed.    1 Samuel 1:27

Devout souls delight to reflect upon those mercies that they have obtained in answer to prayer, for they can see God’s special love in them. When we can name our blessings Samuel—that is, “asked of God”—they will be as dear to us as this child was to Hannah. Peninnah had many children, but they came as common blessings unsought in prayer. Hannah’s one heaven-given child was far more precious, because he was the fruit of sincere pleadings. How sweet was the water that Samson found at “the spring of him who called.”1

Did we pray for the conversion of our children? How doubly sweet, when they are saved, to see in them our own petitions answered! Better to rejoice over them as the fruit of our pleadings than as the fruit of our bodies. Have we asked the Lord for some choice spiritual gift? When it comes to us, it will be wrapped up in the golden cloth of God’s faithfulness and truth and will be doubly precious. Have we sought success in the Lord’s work? How joyful is the prosperity that comes flying on the wings of prayer!

It is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the door of prayer; then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations. Even when prayer is not speedy, the blessings grow all the richer on account of the delay; the child Jesus was all the more lovely in the eyes of Mary when she found Him after having searched for Him. What we gain by prayer we should dedicate to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel. The gift came from heaven; let it go to heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it—let devotion consecrate it. Here will be a special occasion for saying, “Of Your own I have given to You.” Reader, is prayer your heartbeat or your weariness? Which?

1Judges 15:19, margin

Family Reading Plan    Ezekiel 22   Psalm 69