pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: compartmentalize


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Love and Goodness

Reading: Psalm 100:4-5

Verse 5: “The Lord is good and his love endures forever.”

Returning to Psalm 100 today we are once again encouraged to praise the Lord our God. We are invited to be thankful as we enter into God’s courts to offer God our praises. The image created here is one of people entering the temple to spend time in worship, praising God for all of God’s blessings. We have inherited the idea of sabbath worship. We enter the sanctuary once a week to spend an hour or so in worship. During this time we praise God and we offer our thanks for the many ways that God has blessed our lives.

The danger in this system comes in doing to God what we do to the rest of our lives. We can segment God into that time slot on Sunday mornings. By noon we’ve done our God thing and we can get on to the next thing in our lives. This can be part of our tendency to compartmentalize our life. I go to work from x to y on these days. I parent my children in these times slots. I have a date night on the second Friday of each month… We can be so busy. Having times and places for each part of our lives feels easier to handle. It feels more manageable. But faith does not fit into this model. When we try and keep that “God thing” penned into a time slot once a week, then we are practicing religion not faith. Faith is meant to be a part of every aspect of our lives. God desires to be our all in all.

In verse 5 we get a sense of this desire. Here the psalmist writes, “The Lord is good and his love endures forever.” There is a reality here: God is always God. God’s love and goodness are always there. The challenge for us is to be and to bring God’s love and goodness into all of life. May it be so for you and for me.

Prayer: Lord God, you are faithful to all generations. Your love and goodness are constants in this world. So, Lord, use me to reflect that love and goodness each moment of each day. In and through me, may others come to know you more and more. Amen.


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No Compartmentalizing!

Reading: Isaiah 58: 1-12

Verse 8: “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear”.

On Ash Wednesday I encouraged the folks in worship to consider a fast for Lent. We spent time in prayer seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit for discernment concerning what it is that we could choose that would lead us closer to God. Today in our passage Isaiah speaks of the kind of fast that pleases God. As I fasted this past week, I came close to displeasing God with my fast. I became a little grumpy within and was tempted to let it out in my words, but the Holy Spirit squashed that thought and I turned to the Lord and He moved me past my difficulty. Praise God! Yes, it was good the Holy Spirit intervened. But to truly lead to growth and to become closer to God, this experience must change me within. God has brought this struggle to my mind and heart. I must choose to now be more aware of it and must work to not go down that road again next week when I fast again.

In our passage today Isaiah is reminding us first of the ways not to fast. This would apply for all spiritual disciplines that we practice – prayer, worship, Bible study, small groups… It does not please God if we live a life of sin – oppressing others, quarreling, abusing… – and then stop to fast for a time and then return to our sinful ways. Again, the same is true for all of our spiritual disciplines. We cannot compartmentalize our faith. For example, we cannot be a good Christian on Sunday mornings and then live as a pagan the rest of the week.

In verse 4 Isaiah writes, “You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high”. Again, we can insert pray, worship, study… in place of ‘fast’. The results will be the same. Whatever our spiritual practice, it must draw us closer to the heart of God. Starting in verse 6, Isaiah reveals the heart of God to us. It is a heart that cares for and walks alongside the weak and marginalized and oppressed. It is a heart that works to break the chains of injustice and oppression. It is a heart that works to give food and shelter and clothing to those in need. I must honestly ask myself, which of these did I work for this week? We must ask ourselves this because God desires that we live our faith out in the world. If not, we are compartmentalizing our faith.

Starting in verse 8, we read about the impact of choosing to live with the heart of God as we work to live our out faith. Verse 8 reads, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear”. Our light draws others to God. Our souls are healed. We will call out and God will say, “Here I am”. We will come closer in our walk with God. May we seek to discover and grow closer to the heart of God as we worship, as we pray, as we study our Bibles, as we meet with our fellow Christians, and as we live out our faith. May it all be so.

Prayer: Lord, make your heart my heart. Align my thoughts, my words, my actions with your heart, O God. Amen.