The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, 2015Mfano

Desperate for God

We were created for an intimate relationship with God.  Jesus came to make that possible.  Sometimes I have found I get distracted, caught up with other things – even our work for God can distract us from our relationship with him.  At other times I am absolutely desperate for God’s presence, his mercy and grace.  When we find ourselves in this place of desperation nothing but the presence of God will satisfy.

Psalm 139:17-24

1.  Desperate for God’s thoughts

It is an amazing blessing to be able to wake up each morning and know that God is with us and that he wants to speak to us: ‘Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!’ (v.18, MSG).  This is why I love to read the Bible first thing in the morning.  I am desperate to know God’s thoughts.

David is desperate for God.  He wants to know God’s thoughts, ‘How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.  When I awake, I am still with you’ (vv.17–18).

David is also desperate not to offend God in any way:

‘Investigate my life, O God,
    find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
    get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong –
    then guide me on the road to eternal life’ (vv.23–24, MSG). 

Lord, I am desperate to know your thoughts and to hear your voice.  Search me, O God, and know my heart.  Test me and know my anxious thoughts.  Reveal to me any offensive ways in me that need to be dealt with and lead me in the way everlasting.  Lead me into your presence I pray.  Draw me close to you.

Jude 1:1-25

2.  Desperate for God’s truth

Jude is desperate for his readers to hold on to God’s truth and not to be led astray by false teaching: ‘I have to write insisting – begging! – that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish’ (v.3, MSG).

Jude encourages his readers to stick to the teaching they were originally given, and to ‘contend for the faith’ (v.3).  The truth really matters.  We have been entrusted with it (v.3).  We must contend for the truth and against false teachers and false teaching.  First, because we know that God’s judgment is on them – and that is serious (vv.5–10).  Second, because we know the harm they can do, which is also serious (vv.11–16): ‘[They] split churches, thinking only of themselves’ (v.19, MSG).

Jude gives a helpful description of the characteristics of false teachers and false teaching that we should look out for:

• They reject authority.  They want to replace ‘sheer grace’ with ‘sheer license’ (v.4, MSG)
• They deny Jesus Christ ‘as our one and only Master’ (v.4, MSG)
• They look down on and ‘sneer at anything they can’t understand’ (v.10, MSG)
• They ‘do whatever they feel like doing’ (v.10, MSG)
• They are immoral: ‘carousing shamelessly’ (v.12, MSG)
• They grumble, complain and find fault (v.16)
• They grab for themselves ‘the biggest piece of the pie’ (v.16, MSG)
• They are ambitious ‘saying anything they think will get them ahead’ (v.16, MSG).

God’s people are encouraged to be desperate for God’s truth.  The beginning and the end of the letter speak of an intimacy with God and how to live as those desperate for God’s truth.

I love the way that Jude begins this letter.  He sees himself as ‘a servant of Jesus Christ’ (v.1).  There is no higher calling or more liberating job than to see every day as an opportunity to serve Jesus Christ.

He then reassures his readers that they are ‘called’ and ‘loved’ by God the Father ‘and kept by Jesus Christ’ (v.1).  This is true of every Christian.  What he wants for his readers is ‘mercy’, ‘peace’ and ‘love in abundance’ (v.2).  If these were the only verses we had in the whole Bible we could meditate on them for the rest of our lives.

He ends by urging them to:

• Study the truth: ‘Build yourselves up in your most holy faith’ (v.20)
• Pray: ‘Pray in the Holy Spirit’ (v.20).  The Holy Spirit will guide us into the truth
• Stay close to God: ‘Keep yourselves in God’s love’ (v.21)
• Be merciful: ‘Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin’ (v.23, MSG).

Lord, thank you that we are called and loved by you, God the Father, and kept by Jesus Christ (v.1).  Thank you that you promise us mercy, peace and love in abundance.  Thank you that you are able to keep us from falling and to present us before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy (v.24).  Help us to be desperate to hold on to your truth and to contend for the faith (v.3).

Zechariah 5:1-8:23

3.  Desperate for God’s presence

Zechariah is desperate to see God’s temple rebuilt (6:9–14).  He warns of God’s judgment (5:5).  However, there is also great hope here as he foresees the rebuilding of the temple and with it the restoration of God’s presence at the heart of his people. 

Joshua the high priest foreshadows Christ.  He has a crown on his head (6:11) and he is named ‘the Branch’ (v.12; see also Isaiah 4:2–6; 11:12; Jeremiah 23:3–5; 33:14–26). 

He will rebuild the temple of the Lord and be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne.  He will be a priest on his throne (Zechariah 6:12–13).  Like Melchizedek, he combines the kingly and the priestly role, which was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, the King of kings (Revelation 17:14) and our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14).

The people are called to mourning and fasting.  These are the signs of desperation for God.

We, like they, are called to clean up our act.  ‘Treat one another justly.  Love your neighbours.  Be compassionate with each other.  Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor.  Don’t plot and scheme against one another – that’s evil’ (Zechariah 7:9–10, MSG). 

The people’s desperation for God’s presence in their midst is matched and surpassed by God’s own passion to restore his relationship with them.

There is such a passion in the heart of God that it could almost be said that it verges on desperation in his own heart: ‘The Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her … I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem.  Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain” ’ (8:2–3).

When God’s presence is restored to his temple, there will be a place of safety for everyone.  God is concerned for everyone, whatever their age.  We too should be concerned for both old and young.  ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with a cane in hand because of their age.  The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there’ (vv.4–5).

The verses that follow paint a wonderful picture of salvation and restoration, as the people are gathered back to the land and right relationship is restored.  ‘I’ll collect my people from countries to the east and countries to the west.  I’ll bring them back and move them into Jerusalem.  They’ll be my people and I’ll be their God.  I’ll stick with them and do right by them’ (vv.7–8, MSG).  As a result the land itself will begin to flourish once more:

‘Sowing and harvesting will resume,
Vines will grow grapes,
Gardens will flourish,
Dew and rain will make everything green.
My core survivors will get everything they need – and more…
I’ve decided to bless Jerusalem’ (vv.11–12,15, MSG).

No wonder the people were desperate for the presence of God to be restored!

When this happens, there is also an evangelistic dimension.  The people of God, and the church community, become something that others are attracted to because they see the difference that God’s presence makes.  ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you’ ” ’ (v.23).

Lord, help us to be a community that gets involved in issues of justice, showing mercy and compassion to one another.  Will you fill your church with your presence.  We are desperate for you.  Help us to be a place that ministers to the poor and needy, and a place of truth and peace, where people bring their friends and family because they have heard ‘God is with you’. 

Pippa Adds

Psalm 139:23–24

‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’

Sometimes I have anxious thoughts.  It is comforting that God knows about these thoughts.  I need to hand them over, let go and allow him to guide me.

Notes:

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.