Refresh: What we deserve.

By Dr. Marshall Wicks

I was walking across campus one day and greeted one of our current students, “Hey, how are you doing?” I think we generally expect a somewhat innocuous answer to such a greeting, but the answer I got was far from that. The student answered, “Better than I deserve.” Wow! What a perfect answer to a common question. It opens so many opportunities to draw a person into a very meaningful and spiritual conversation.

So many times, we think to ourselves that life is unfair. I remember one Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin laments that life is never unfair in his favor.

But life is always unfair in our favor. If life were truly fair, we would all be spending eternity in Hell, and Jesus would never have come to this planet and suffered the humiliation of the cross. 

This made me think about Jesus’ Gospel presentation in the book of Matthew. We know this passage as the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew is probably the first New Testament book written and as such lays down a number of benchmarks for all ensuing Scripture. Before Matthew tells us anything else about Jesus’ ministry, he lays out for all to see a simple and “user-friendly” version of the Gospel — a Gospel for the weak in spirit, a Gospel for those who hunger, a Gospel that comes free of charge. But it is also a Gospel that changes everything about our perspective on present life. We no longer worry about the trials and tribulations that swirl about us. We now see opportunities where we once saw threats.

The dynamic that changes our worldview is faith. We are now believers. We believe that God is working out a beautiful plan of opportunity for all who accept Him. We believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God that flows to us and through us because of Jesus Christ. Or do we?

Matthew 6:25 reads: “Stop worrying about the affairs of this life.” Perhaps some of us are going through difficult times even as we read this little article. God does not ask us to stop taking actions to remedy such problems, but He does tell us to stop worrying about them.

Worry erodes faith. It causes us to look horizontally and not vertically. It is an attempt to force our will on a situation as opposed to seeing the awesome work of a gracious God unfolding before our eyes.

Matthew goes on to write: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Worry seeks the kingdom of man and our own righteousness. It tries to justify our own version of reality and ignore the worldview set forth in Scripture. Worry is not caused by the problems we encounter; it is a condition of the heart. If our hearts are not changed, we will never have the things added unto us that are promised for those who seek the kingdom of God. 

The next time someone asks how we are doing, we need to see it as an opportunity to remind ourselves and the one who greets us that this life is a whole lot better than any of us deserve.