John 21:9
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.
If you’re new to Christian living or even if you’re a veteran, so to speak, it’s always a marvel to know that Jesus Christ cares about the little details of your life. How do we know what God is like? We know the Father through the Son and the Spirit testifies within us so that we have blessed certainty of this marvelous fact. So, we know that we’re loved and this love, abundant and overflowing, is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit for those who come to God in Christ.
Many of us miss the blessing of the presence of God because they miss His humility and meekness. Jesus sets up breakfast for the disciples. What a lowly thing to do. A modern feminist would take offense if the Bible said that a woman should have been preparing the food while the men fished and yet here is the God-man, Jesus Christ, serving yet again. He starts the fire and the fish and bread are ready for them after the night of work. It’s a hard thing to understand how Jesus Christ is the great King, the Lord, our Savior and also this ever thoughtful friend too. Scenes like this reveal for us the beauty of what is called Christian paradox. All of these things are true and we do well to remember not to play one attribute of God over against another. A great many heresies arise from this abject failure. Indeed, who has known the mind of the Lord that he may be His counselor? Who has done Him a favor that he needs to be repaid?
The second thing that robs us of the presence and blessing of the Lord is a spirit of entitlement, which is really the sin of covetousness.
A while back, while having a lunch with my son, which was simply peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I prayed before we ate and we gave thanks. I’m not sure what compelled me to ask but I turned to him and said, “Do you think it’s weird to give thanks to almighty God for so little a thing as a sandwich?”
My son and I have a wonderful relationship, thank God, nurtured over the years by daily readings of the Psalms and Proverbs, prayer and “giving each other our hearts.” This is the biblical model, after all. We are not to ask for the heart of our children without giving them our own first. How else will they know what that’s like unless we lead by example? And how will we give our hearts to another if that heart is ravaged by guilt, shame, pride and sin? Oh, what a blessing it is to be forgiven by God and loved by Christ and led by the Spirit!
Anyway, my son admitted what I suspected. He did think it was a little strange. I smiled at him and took his hand and we prayed again. “Dear God and heavenly Father,” I started, “we thank you that you are so loving and patient with us as we learn and grow. Father, please teach us that every little blessing that comes is from your hand and that what we need more than the sandwich or the drink is to know this and to thank you. Help us to see our need. Help us to live lives of radical gratefulness so that we see you and not the things.”
Then we talked as we ate about how, in the historical context, we’re so fortunate and blessed. In generations past it was unthinkable to be able to eat whenever you wanted to. The thought of eating because you were bored would have struck men and women of just a century ago as an unfathomable luxury. Who could afford such opulence? Indeed, the reality that the poor in America struggle with obesity – that is, having too much to eat – should compel us to give thanks and praise to God. We talk about how modern athletes are so much bigger and stronger than those of previous eras but this is prideful talk. Jack Dempsey, for example, upon winning the heavyweight championship of the world was, in fact, amazed that he could actually eat more than one meal per day! And now millions of Americans mindlessly (and thanklessly) actually go out to eat as often as once a day.
Finally, the loss of thankfulness in our lives is often accompanied by the sin of covetousness, which is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). We must remind ourselves that there’s no such thing as a spiritual vacuum. Life is spiritual war! Choose this day whom you will serve, the Lord or the god of self (Joshua 24:15). You were created to worship and know the Lord and if you don’t do that, something else will take its place. Our salvation sets us free for a life in which we live thankfully in the Lord from moment to moment, knowing that He is the Lord of all…of every moment and every breeze that touches our skin and morsel that passes our lips. The primary sin is the refusal to acknowledge God and, watch this, give Him thanks (Romans 1:18)! A Christian life, therefore, is a life with the renewed mind, aware of the snares of greed and the great evil of lack of contentment. This is a radical departure from the mind that’s set on the flesh, which is hostile to God and doesn’t submit to Him (Romans 8:7). The fleshly mind is the American mind that’s always thinking about what it wants, what it’s owed, and is never content. Today, that mind curses previous generations for sins long ago as an excuse to be angry right now.
The unregenerate mind is always grumbling and complaining. It’s the mindset of those that fell in the wilderness after God delivered them from the bondage of Egypt. A note to politicians today, a thing they should know, is that Moses never told them that Egypt was their problem. No. Unbelief and lack of trust in God was their problem. Lack of gratitude was their issue, not their previous physical bondage. God gave them manna but they wanted more…wanted other things. Their hearts were set on an earthly security, not the God who had delivered them. And make no mistake, Christian, the bondage from which Israel emerged with Moses, through the sea, was nothing compared to the bondage we’ve emerged from with Christ! So, we take care that we don’t repeat those grievous errors and tempt the Lord as they did then (as they are a type of the Christian walk today as evidence in Romans 15:4). Heaven forbid it! No. We walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit and that means with the mind of Christ, looking to serve, not be served. Each of us should seek to serve his neighbor and build him up in the name of Christ through whatever skill and opportunity the Lord has given.
We are to live in faith. That is the goal of Christian living. Period. And the mind that’s set on Christ, looking for Him in all things, is free from the idolatry of blaming others, wanting things so as to be displeased and unsettled today, and bowing down to the false gods of self, or the state, or food, drugs, sex, or any other created thing. Don’t go back to Egypt, Christian. Don’t look back. Look forward to the Christ that saved you from sin and death and then you’ll be blessed with a peace that defies your circumstances, that exalts Christ as Lord, and blesses those who know you by pointing them to the great fact of life. What fact is that? That salvation is from the Lord.
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