Reflection: I Make It My Ambition

“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2. Cor. 5:9 ESV).
What really got me thinking about how we use these words were the two translations that said, “We try our best.” Because what Paul says he is “trying his best” to do is to please Jesus. And the reason is that we are all going to appear before his judgment seat to receive what is our due for what we have done. 
I’m afraid we have become quite glib about tossing about the phrase, “I tried my best.” It has a feeling of finality about it. Well, I tried. It didn’t work out. I guess I don’t need to do that again. I’m certain that is not what Paul meant!
I’ve been thinking about this verse this way: I make it my ambition to please him. An ambition is an eager or strong desire to achieve something. A strong desire to achieve something doesn’t allow me to give it a try and give up if it doesn’t work out. 

Reflection: You Know Better

"Knowledge makes for stability. Peter’s intention is to remind us of important points though we know and are established in the truth. That is, we are set fast, firmly fixed in the truth. Ignorant and unstable people will twist Scripture “to their own destruction.” We have been warned so we won’t be carried away with their errors and lose our own . The prophetic word we have is firmly fixed, sure and certain. It is something reliable enough that we can build on it. 
Peter writes with urgency because the Lord had made it clear to him that the end of his life was near. While he still has time, he will make every effort so that after his departure we may be able at any time to recall these things. (2 Pet. 1:15) He was willing to make every effort to remind us, but we still have to do our part. We can’t remember things we don’t know. Peter exhorts us to be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure. We will never fall if we practice adding virtues to our faith. We have to pay attention and 'be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace' (2 Pet. 3:14). We must take care not to be carried away with the errors of lawless people."
 
 

Reflection: I Thank You, Father

"I believe that Jesus was teaching us that true thanksgiving is concurring with God’s right judgments. Whether circumstances look good to me or not, I want to be transformed by the renewal of my mind. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ' (I Cor. 2:16)."

Reflection: How Will You Compete with Horses?

If Paul considered his affliction light and momentary, what are we called to think about ours? He didn’t have anything we can’t have. When he told the Ephesians to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might,” it wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command followed by instructions on how to do that. “Put on the whole armor of God,” and when you have done everything, “stand firm.”
When he wrote to the Corinthians, Paul didn’t say he had exclusive access to the mind of Christ. He said we have the mind of Christ. We’re not competing with horses on our own power. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

Reflection: Having Our Senses Trained

 “Nothing that exists by nature can form a habit contrary to its nature . . . Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.” 

Reflection: Shade of His Hand

The life of Joseph, in the Old Testament, is a vivid example of the shade of God’s hand. Joseph was a favored son of his father. He also had the gift of interpreting dreams. While it would have been prudent for him not to advertise his dreams in front of his brothers, he wasn’t responsible for the hatred that drove them to be willing to kill him. As Pharaoh’s slave, and later in prison for something he didn’t do, Joseph may have been wondering if he would have been better off dead. When he interpreted dreams for two fellow prisoners, he must have thought he’d bought his ticket out. The men he helped didn’t return the favor, and he sat in prison for two more years.
“Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?”
 
 

Reflection: Strip Off the Old Self

It’s clear from this language, and my own experience, that my old self isn’t going to come off as easily as that itchy dress I was supposed to wear. I have to formally disown it and divest it of all authority. The t.v. show was called “Branded” because the soldier had been convicted of cowardice. That is what I have to do to the things that are earthly in me; rip off all vestiges of their authority, expose their pathetically pale underbelly, and renounce their cravenness. That is what those earthly things are. They are garments and accessories my old self uses to disguise its abject impotence before its Creator.  

Reflection: Pitch a Tent in Hope

"My meditation on Acts 22:26 is something like, My flesh shall pitch a tent in confident expectation. This is not a confident expectation that God will arrange things in my life for my comfort and convenience. This is an expectation that God, who cannot lie, will do what he has promised."

Reflection: They Set Up Their Own Signs for Signs

"When God was leading his people through the wilderness and laying down his laws, he gave instructions for things that were to be set up for worshiping him and remembering his deeds. He gave detailed directions for setting up the tabernacle. Often, he commanded an altar or monument to be set up as a sign or memorial. God knows we need tangible reminders, but he was always specific that these be set up at his direction.
Serious problems arose when God’s people started setting things up on their own. In the time of the Judges, when everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes, one tribe set up their own idols and appointed their own priests. King Saul went terribly wrong when he set up a monument for himself. Many of the kings of Israel and Judah set up their own pillars and monuments. At times, the people even set up their own king."

Reflection: You Feed Them

John’s gospel says that Jesus asked Philip where they were going to get enough food for all the people and that, “He said this to test him for he himself knew what he would do” (John 6:6). In any case, the disciples went to find out exactly how much food was available - five loaves of bread and two fish. What in the world could anyone do with that?   
Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”