Look At Your Hands

I came across a very visual truth lately in the Bible. While I’m going to teach it soon, I also wanted to write about it to glean greater application for myself, and hopefully for anyone who may read this. Writing things down is a way I remember better.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 1: 22: Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

To love one another deeply, or intensely or fervently, comes from a verb that means to “stretch out your hand.” I have pictures in my mind of our children when they were very young and more current ones of our grandchildren. It is a picture we all can identify with. Puggy little hands that when the owner senses that someone nearby is about to make a move on a desired toy or book close tightly with vice grip strength. The grip is accompanied by an urgent vocalizing of “NO! MINE!” Territorial boundaries are set and defended. And a selfish heart is betrayed. This is not a criticism of little children. It is simply an acknowledgement that we are all born selfish, sinful.

But Peter is indicated that when the Lord has changed us as we respond to Him by faith, suddenly our hands are open. And the proof that we have been transformed is that our hands are stretched out toward others in love. I’ve tried to paint some pictures in my mind of the applications of this in my own life.

When I stretch out my hands emotionally in every relationship, I am not looking at what I can get from it but rather how I can pour into it. If someone says something hurtful or critical, rather than clutching my hands in bitterness or resentment, I hardly even notice that they did something wrong to me. And I wonder what is happening in their life that would move them to take such an action. Note that I used the word “hardly.” It is not that we don’t feel the sting of the hurt. It is that we keep our hands stretched out so that hurt does not become a root of bitterness. You see when I keep my hand stretched out I can offer it up to Jesus and He can lift it off me.

When I stretch out my hand with generosity I find it keeps me from selfishness. Give and it will be given to you runs in my head. You see I’ve learned that if I keep my grubby little hands closed, trying to hold on to my possessions, it also keeps me from receiving from the Lord. And He said that what we receive will be “pressed down, shaken together and overflowing.” Why? So we can be open handed toward others.

When I stretch out my hands with the Gospel, I am loving the person like Jesus loves them. No judgment. That is not my job. I hold out the truth in love. It’s not always received well but that reaction is exactly how they treated Jesus. He said that the world will hate us the way they hated Him. In fact all of us were “enemies” of Jesus at one time. But what did He do? He stretched out His hands on the cross and died for us. So we stretch out our hands in urgent love toward those around us with a persistent call to consider Jesus. Peter says later, to be “ready always to give a reason for the hope that you have.” Open hands always with the Gospel.

Look at your hands. Close your eyes. Now, how do you picture your hands emotionally? Materially? Spiritually? Relationally?

Don’t know about you, but I’m asking the Lord to continue to do some prying on my hands until they are as stretched out and open wide as His were on the cross toward me. Love, godly love, always keeps its hands open wide and stretched out. It is not always safe but it is always right and good. Let’s all keep a watch on our hands.

Light

Its dark out right now.  Darkness is an amazing thing.  When God brought the plagues on Egypt, one of them was darkness.  It was so dark you could not see the person beside you.  That is dark.  Its always amazed me that the fear, the sense of bad things being bigger than they are, and the sense of depression you can feel when it is dark are quickly alleviated when the light comes.  I love the sense of joy and life that morning brings.  But the nights can be long.

So it is in life.  In his grief, Job longed for the light again:  ² “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, ³ when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness! (Job 29:2-3)  Isaiah spoke of how deep the darkness had grown when Israel turned away from the Lord:  ⁹ So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. ¹⁰ Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. (Isaiah 59:9-10)

The good news is that Light has come and is available.  And when we take advantage of bringing the truth of the light of God’s Word into any and every situation, darkness flees.  And those who practice darkness flee because they can’t stand the light.

For those who have found freedom, remain in the light.  For those sitting in darkness or who have a dark corner in your life, grab your Bible and start turning on the light.  You will be amazed at how darkness flees.  And with it goes all the fears, discouragements and depressions.  Why do we resist turning on the light?

Becoming Like Them

Children make me smile.  Innocent.  Dependent. Amazed at the world around them. Laughing. Awkward.  Real. Without agenda except to live.  And passionate about their parents.  Life is simple. 

   When I look at children I am reminded that Jesus said that we must change and become like them in order to enter into His Kingdom. 

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

 ² He called a little child and had him stand among them. ³ And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18:1-4

Notice a singular word.  “Change.”  Jesus is exposing the reality that by asking the question of who is greatest proves the disciples are far from having this child-like humility.  The child was not aware of being humble.  He just was. His essence was humility.  No fight over rights.  No bad feelings about the advancement of others.  No demands for attention.  Just an unexpected uneasiness when Jesus puts him front and center and uses him as an example.  I can almost hear him in his discomfort saying, “Can I go back and play now?”

It takes the grace of God to change a man or woman like this.  I’m praying that the Lord will continue to transform me to be child-like to the point where I never notice that I am.