Meditation on the Text of the Week

Loving the Giver Because of His Gifts

Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73: 25,26

All human beings engage from time to time in a kind of metaphysical arithmetic where they think about what it really important to them. The conclusions they reach about what is of dominant concern to them is reflected in their actions and in their speech.

For many in our day it is wealth and prosperity—the ability to satisfy virtually every desire for material possessions and a preferred lifestyle. Getting the next “thing” is all important. For others, whanau, or children, or a loving home is the institution to which they devote their lives. For others, it is saving the world from the apocalypse du jour (whale extinction, wars in the Middle East, global warming, Brazilian rain forests—whatever). Others strive for the approval and approbation of those they admire and aspire to be like.

The Christian is marked by something else—something quite different. His great longing and desire is for God. There is nothing or no-one in heaven or upon earth that he would rather have or enjoy. He would rather have one day in the courts of God than a thousand outside.

Now this does not mean that the Christian is a world-denier in the ascetic sense. It is true that in the history of the people of God there have been those who have separated from the world to live lives of self-abnegation, poverty, or chastity in the mistaken belief that this brings them closer to God, or is required for a life of dedication and service to God. Unfortunately, such beliefs betray a greater loyalty to satanic doctrines than to the Scriptures. Such beliefs are doctrines of demons and come from deceitful spirits.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron; men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which has God created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
I Timothy 4: 1—3

So when the Believer expresses the heart of the Christian faith, the essence of the fruit of the Gospel, which is that God is his great love and desire, he is not saying that he does not enjoy food or marriage or family life or the approbation of those he esteems. Rather, he looks at all these good things not as rivals for his affection, but as good gifts from God. They increase his love for God for he sees them as they truly are: gifts from God. He responds with thankfulness to God, so that every good and perfect gift which has come to him in this life only strengthens his conviction that he desires nothing upon earth but the Lord.

As Paul goes on:

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude: for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

Now we understand why Paul said the ascetic self-denier was actually a purveyor of demonic doctrines. The created world is of God: seven times during His work of creation He declared the creation to be good. Everything created by God is good. It is the Devil who suggested to Adam through Eve that the goodness around them was questionable and that they needed to make some radical changes.

The Christian is always a creation affirmer. He loves the world as God has created it. He strives to enjoy the good gifts of God in it. But this only causes his heart to set upon God as his highest and only good—for all of creation is a manifestation of God's goodness to him.

This also means that when times and circumstances become hard and difficult, and the Believer does not enjoy as many of the gifts and fruits of the creation as he once did, he does not, as a consequence, languish in his love of his God. Because he knows that all good things come from God's hand, it increases his resolve, once again to seek the face of God and to know Him more.