Agreement

Agreeing with God; we don’t do it as much as we think we do.

Our minds are filled with all sorts of contradictions. If asked we might tell a friend that yes, we love ourselves, but it’s evident that in some areas of our life we don’t take care of ourselves. And we take care of the things we love – to the best of our ability. We might insist we have a good self-image, when in reality we have lies rolling around in our head that drag us down and cause us to doubt ourselves or our worth. We might declare in song that we are fearfully and wonderfully made – but then berate ourselves for how much weight we’ve gained or how lifeless our hair is or how badly our face is broken out again. We’re not even in agreement with ourselves, how much less with the Word of God?

God Word does tell us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made – (Psalm 139, I’ve included the entire psalm at the end of this blog post.)

His Word also declares that nothing can separate us from His love. Yet there are many times we feel unloved or even unlovable.

He says He’ll never leave us nor forsake us, yet how often do we feel alone and lonely, as if our last friend has fallen off the face of the earth.

When we’re filled with these contradictions – we’re like the instrument in the symphony that never been tuned, tearing up the whole song. Being in harmony with God brings His peace into our lives in an overwhelming manner. To be in harmony, we must be in agreement, not fighting God at every turn. Something inside of us wants to be right all the time, stirring up arguments that didn’t even exist. That’s ego, which can be a good thing sometimes, but without balance, there won’t be harmony. Without harmony, there won’t be peace. And thinking we can find peace without God is total dysfunction. It’s like insisting on finishing a puzzle when you know the missing piece has already been digested by the dog.

Psalm 139 (NKJV)

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
² You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
³ You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
⁵ You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall^[a] on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
¹² Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
²² I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

The Power Agreement

Agreement is the place of power; one of the prominent statements in my notes from church this morning. Consequently: Disagreement is the place of powerlessness. No wonder the strategy of divide and conquer is so popular; it displaces agreement.

We are free to choose who we agree and disagree with. So why do we agree with the negative things and the lies in our lives? We’re in agreement with the father of lies; the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

We need to agree with Truth. Quoting Henry Blackaby, ‘Truth is not just a concept to study. Truth is a Person. Jesus did not say, “I will teach you the truth.” He said, “I am … the truth”’ (John 14:6)

We need to investigate what God’s Word says about us, about our lives and God’s will for us and come into agreement with it. This is where the secret to power and purposeful living come alive for us.

Do we agree with those we believe or do we believe those we agree with? There is a political movement in America now that has many people coming together. Many agree with those taking a stand, but don’t know really what they’re agreeing with because the beliefs within that movement vary. Some of what they say sounds very good, but some of what they’re saying sounds hateful, even sinful, to me. But there’s power in the agreement going on. Voices are louder; points of view are noted. I admire the coming together.

In Genesis 6:11 (AMP) we read about this kind of unity: ‘And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them.’

So why is the Christian voice not louder? Why is there so much disagreement within the body of Christ? The discord and distrust, the backbiting and bickering, the legalism and lies believed make our enemy mock us and laugh at us. Our own thoughts and words make his labors of evil easier to accomplish as we turn on one another.

Pick up your Bible today and find something to agree with God about. Do it again tomorrow and the next day. Make a habit of it.

To Get His Point Across

This morning as I woke up praying and thanking God for all the good things in my life I got a mental image of an old man, one that looks a bit like pictures of ancient philosophers, maybe Plato, writing in a book. He leaned his head on one hand while contemplating what to write with a fancy quill in the other.

Joy welled up inside of me as I thanked God for evident blessings. I wanted to just thank Him for being God. Is that something He can even be thanked for? He is God.

John 3:16 came to mind; For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son… He gave His Son. He GAVE His Son. To whom did He give His Son? [Selah]

I know He gave His Son for me, to bear the punishment for my sin, in my place. So I realize what He gave His Son for – but to?

He gave His Son to us, His lost and dying people. But moreso, as I watched this old man in my mind looking at what he wrote, it dawned on me; God gave His Son for His Word. To back up His own words, His own decrees, He chose to give up His only begotten Son. It was necessary to fulfill His own words.

God could have torn the pages from His book and started over again. He could have declared a new decree.

God decreed that the penalty for sin is death. He needed a spotless sacrifice to pay that penalty, knowing that there was none on earth without sin, none spotless. I don’t believe God wrestled with this choice. He made it not only out of love for us, but out of respect for His own Word. He valued the power and authority of His own Word so much that He kept it. He’s not a man that He should lie, or change His mind.

As I pondered on this image of an old man writing the most important of all documents, I realized: The covenant was with Himself – He could have changed the terms of agreement. But He wrote, or spoke that covenant – and kept His end of it….