Reflection: reLENT Series: reCEIVE (March 12, 2014)

Lent Midweek 2

1 Corinthians 2:6-16; John 1:9-18

An ancient Greeks fable tells of a dog carrying a bone in his mouth when he came upon a pool of water. Seeing his reflection in the water, the dog thought that he was looking at another dog that was also holding a bone in his mouth. Wanting that bone as well as his own, the dog let go of the bone that he was holding in order to grab the bone that the “other” dog had only to watch both bones disappear into the water. The moral lesson of this fable is not to be greedy. But the dog in the story illustrates another truth: We can’t receive something if we are filled up with other things. The dog knew that he had to let go of what he had in order to receive what we wanted. The dog understood this principle, but things didn't work out well for him. How should we expect things to turn out for us when we don’t even understand the principle?

Whenever we come into God’s presence, we come in need. Even on our best days, we still stand in great need before our Holy God. God knows this and He is gracious to us. He never fails to meet our needs. Instead, He graciously provides all that we need for this life and for the life to come. But we often come before Him with our lives so full of other things that we have no room to receive what He provides. We hold onto the hectic, stressful pace of our lives instead of taking hold of the peace of Christ. We maintain our worldly priorities even though they wear us out rather than embracing the rest that comes with letting God’s Word guide our lives. We stockpile money and goods that squeeze out the spiritual riches that Christ has made ours. We recognize that we should let go of the lesser things of this world in order to take hold of the greater things of the Lord, but we’re too afraid of losing what we have by letting go of what we have in order to take hold of what God provides. We think we've mastered the lesson of the Greek fable, but we've missed the point altogether.

The way to receiving all that God has provided to us starts with ridding ourselves of everything that we would carry into His presence. This frees us to come before Him with empty hands. But He does not leave us empty-handed beggars. Instead He fills our lives with good things, delighting in giving them to us and rejoicing in all that He gives and all that we receive.

Click here to listen to the sermon "reCEIVE" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).