Cooperating with God

Ever feel like you don’t have anything left in the tank? You are spent? You can’t go on? You don’t know where you are going to find the energy to do what you know others are expecting you to do? You feel like taking a break but you just got back from vacation?

That was me a few weeks ago. I got a bit overwhelmed – over-doing it, over-thinking things, lost perspective. A variety of things were going on – a death, a funeral, plus some stressful people stuff and some stressful health stuff. I was weary, exhausted, dragging emotionally and physically. That week we were having an elder’s day away – and I didn’t want to go – but I couldn’t just phone and say I am staying home, it was my idea to do it! So I just kept fighting through it, pressing on, weary yet pursuing. We were having a sharing time and when it came my turn I wanted to put on a good face, didn’t want to admit where I was at. But I did. I shared with my fellow elders what I did not want them to know – that I was tired, and stressing over things, taking things personally, internalizing, letting the joy slip away. When I was done they gathered around and prayed for me – then we took a break and they said “go home and be with your family”. I went home saying ‘how awesome are our elders!’ They were putting into practice Gal. 6, where it says that each one shall bear his own load (normal cargo); but we are to bear one another’s burdens (the overload). I was reminded how awesome God is, He renews our perspective when it is clouded and confused. The enemy wants us in a tailspin, God wants us soaring. The enemy wants to drag us down, God wants to lift us up.

A few days later one of our elders texted me a note of encouragement with these verses: 1 Thess. 5:23-24. This particular elder is an avid bass fisherman. He took me fishing with him once. I am used to stream fishing for trout. Bass fishing is different. Once you hook a fish you can’t hold the line too tight, or you’ll snap it; or too loose, or you’ll lose the fish; you have to hold it in the delicate balance between being too tight and too slack. In life, I lean towards holding things too tight. I am so prone to strive instead of resting; so prone to retreat instead of engaging; so prone to do things out of anger and vindictiveness. I fall short on all three counts. And I get good at hiding it from the people.

You may be carrying burdens that you don’t want others to know about – because you don’t want to burden them; you want to viewed as strong; you don’t want people to know how weak you feel; you want to be seen as capable, efficient, on top of things.

I want you to have permission today to loosen the rubber band a bit, relax your tight grip on your life for a few minutes as we look at a passage of Scripture written to people who lived a couple 1000 years before us but who were strangely like us. Needing reassurance. Paul wrote this letter to a group of people who were struggling with their own sin and also forces outside themselves that wanted to destroy their new found faith in Christ. Paul wanted them to know the hope they had in Christ and the certainty of Christ’s return. These verses have been a source of encouragement to me and my prayer is that they will be the same and more for you in whatever you are facing right now. Written to encourage and reassure believers.

Verse 23 begins, “Now may the God of peace Himself”. Peace in Greek is eirene, which means the absence or end of strife. It is state of untroubled, undisturbed well-being. The idea is that God is the One who initiated the reconciliation of believers to Himself and is now at peace with them. The hostility was all theirs. God’s Peace trumps our tendency to strive or lash out in anger.

What the God of peace will do? God will “sanctify you entirely”. It refers to God’s work of setting believers apart, preparing them for His use in every part of life. The Greek word is hagiazo, which means uncommon, sacred, holiness, set apart, to withdraw from fellowship with the world and from selfishness by first gaining fellowship with God and toward God. It answers our tendency to retreat and disengage. The New Geneva Study Bible says, “Sanctification is an ongoing process dependent on God’s continuing action in the believer, consisting of the believer’s continuous struggle against sin. God’s method of sanctification is neither activism (self-reliant activity) not apathy (God-reliant passivity), but human effort dependent on God”. Justification/regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth.

God will also “keep you blameless”. It means God will preserve you, He will complete His work of conforming you to the image of Christ. He will finish the work He started in you Phil. 1:6. We don’t have to worry if we will be holy enough or good enough by the time Jesus came back. It is God’s work, He will do it. How can we be sure? Because, as verse 24 says, “Faithful is He who calls and He will bring it to pass.” God is worthy to be believed, true, just, trustworthy, observant of and steadfast to His promises. We can, as Ps. 46:10 says, “be still and know He is God”.

God calls people to salvation. Call refers to God’s effectual call of His chosen ones to salvation. Great assurance. Eternal security is the truth about what God gives us in Christ. Assurance of salvation means you know & are confident in that truth. God calls and He will bring those He calls to heaven and none will be lost. (See John 6:37-44; 10:28-29; Rom. 8:28-39; Phil. 1:6; Jude 24)

Sanctification is God’s job. He is in charge of the whole operation, we are responsible for cooperation! It is not within our power to be sanctified – Zech. 4:6; Col. 1:27-29. Only God Himself can separate us from sin to holiness completely. Because He is faithful we can live fruitful, significant lives.

What does God want us to do? I kept reading and saw some amazingly simple things He wants us to do.

Verse 25 says “Pray for us”. We are to fellowship with God in prayer.

Verse 26 says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss”. Sounds weird to us, but it means to engage in fellowship with God’s people. In those days people would greet one another with a kiss; it signified fellowship in Christ’s church as well as the pure life they were to live. We are to live in such a way that we get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ and have unhindered fellowship. Able to greet one another and look each other in the eye with a clear conscience.

Verse 27 says to read the letter to everyone in the church. Why? So others will be encouraged. Listen to God and do what He says. It was to be read out loud to everyone in the community of faith, including those who were wayward. The fact that these letters were to be read to the church shows the authority of Paul’s letters; assumes they were written to be understood by believers. He knew it was God’s Word before the canon was set; how mind blowing!

Lastly, we are to rest in God’s grace. See verse 28. God’s grace is like an overarching umbrella covering us; it envelopes us, permeates our lives. It is like God is saying to us, “You don’t have to worry about the sanctification, I will do that. You do what you are called to do – pray, fellowship, read God’s Word, Live and share the gospel of the grace of God in Christ. These things are not sanctification, but God uses them in the process.

Whatever it is that you are striving about, or disengaging about, or lashing out in anger about…God knows…He understands…He is at work. Maybe you are at the end of your rope and feel like your back is up against the wall. Good. God has your attention, the way He didn’t have when things were going well. Now He can work on the stuff you were too preoccupied to see before. When God gets our attention, when we are called out of our zone into His, there is a clarity that cannot be experienced in times of ease; substance that cannot be gained in times of plenty. It comes through the paring down of resources, the taking away of strength, and the elimination of distractions that God brings about when purifying someone’s soul; bringing about growth in Christ likeness; sanctification.

It is a source of comfort, assurance, encouragement to know that we do not have to do the Christian life by ourselves. God is in control. He is sovereign. We are called to cooperate, that is all. We know that we cannot please God or do any good thing without Christ’s enabling (John 15:5), the Holy Spirit indwelling us; but also that He will strengthen us for what He wants us to do (Phil. 4:13). So we do what we are called to do. God will do His work of sanctification and preservation. He will do what He has purposed in your life in His good and perfect time. He is not running late. He will do it for His glory & your good. Until then we do what the Thessalonians did (1:9-10): turn to God from idols to serve the living God and wait for His Son from heaven, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Soli Deo Gloria