day no. 16,383: feminism is not the success of women, but the surrender

"In this corner called England, at this end of the century, there has happened a strange and startling thing. Openly and to all appearance, this ancestral conflict has silently and abruptly ended; one of the two sexes has suddenly surrendered to the other... the woman has in public surrendered to the man. She has seriously and officially owned that the man has been right all along; that the public house is really more important than the private house." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

Feminism is not a win for the feminine. It is a forfeiture. Feminism is not a victory for women, it is a defeat. It does not justify femininity, it surrenders it. Feminism is not the final triumph of women, it is their final defeat. It is women rejecting womanhood. It is the feminine forsaking femininity. It is the concession speech of the feminine agreeing that all the former fuss was uncalled for.

Feminism is an apology and a repentance. It offers femininity as a burnt offering to masculinity in order to say, "I'm sorry," and promises never to pursue girly things ever again. It does an about face and abandons domesticity (husband, home, and children) in order to embrace promiscuity.

Feminism abandons the feminine ideal. Few things are more chauvinistic than Feminism. It is bad enough when men get together to throw shade at the things in which women delight, but how much more so when women do?

Masculinity never suffocated the flame of the feminine so successfully as the feminists have. Nothing has been more hostile to domesticity than vixens in the city.

Feminism is not a procession of feminine virtue, but a concession. Feminism is not the imperialization of femininity, but the capitulation of it. It is the weaker vessel forsaking all weakness. It is fine china conceding that plastic is supreme. It is rose petals arguing for fake flowers and lace making a case for burlap.

What the sister soldiers assumed to be advances turned out merely to be the strategic retreats of chauvinism. The feminists then have this in common with the chauvinists — they both hate what women have traditionally loved.

Feminism is the final concession that masculinity is the ideal. It joins forces with the men by agreeing that their domain was the only one that ever mattered. Nothing has done more damage to domesticity than women teaching other women to despise it.

Titus 2:3-5

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Where women forsake the Word of God, womanhood is forsaken and the world taunts the Word.

day no. 16,382: private omnipotence and small scale universality

"The female holds up with two strong arms these two pillars of civilization (thrift and dignity); we say also that she could do neither, but for her position; her curious position of private omnipotence, universality on a small scale." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

A woman is given a kingdom to call her very own. She is the be all end all of her domain. She has domestic omnipotence. She is universal in a given place. The smallness of its scale provides the largeness of its responsibility. She is given full reign to rule as she sees fit: from the color of the sheets on the beds to the portions of meat on the plate, she rules the roost.

The man is often striving simply to acquire secular competence. Far from being sovereign, he is subject to the whims of his masters. The man works hard to develop skills that will keep him employed and out of trouble. If he works well, he may be promoted to another level of competence under another master. The man must aim for public competence. He must be a specialist because the largeness of the work demands it.

The man strives to be something at work so that woman can be everything at home. He needs to be someone to everyone while she gets to be everyone to a few people.

A wife is a queen of a whole world. A husband is often a servant in part of someone else's. A mother is a sovereign under her roof. A father is often under obligation under someone else's.

The woman is free to rule her own domain; the man is often enslaved inside another's. The woman in her home is her own boss. The man at the office must answer to multiple.

Feminism encourages women to enslave themselves for the sake of saying that they are as free as men to submit themselves to many masters. Feminism calls women to forsake their sovereignty in order to serve someone else's for the sake of being just as enslaved as men. Feminism calls slavery "freedom," and servitude "emancipation" It has convinced women to freely submit to the chains of the office in order to abandon the oppressiveness of being unbound at home.

"Feminism is a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands." — G.K. Chesterton

day no. 16,381: laurelai is TEN!!!

Happy Birthday, Laurelai!

You are officially a decade old. You have been such a lively, lovely addition to our family. You have so much energy and so much love to give. You can be as bouncy as Tigger's tail and as sad as Eeyore's. You put a lot of yourself into whatever you are doing which sometimes means a lot of spontaneous eruptions of quickness and at other times means long meditations on handwriting. You love doing things well and take it hard when things don't turn out the way you wanted. You love people and like doing nice things for them. You don't like being at odds with others and do your best to be at peace with them. You are accommodating, but not a pushover. You are willing to do whatever the group wants unless it means going against your conscience. You like making others happy, but aren't willing to do whatever others want.

You love riding your bike around the neighborhood.

You like wearing your cherries jubilee shorts.

You like doing your hair and often put your own braids in. You don't like getting your glasses dirty or sweaty and often take them off when going out into the warm summer weather to avoid either.

You like hugs and often track me down when I leave my home office to get more coffee. You like being one of the last ones to say goodbye when I leave for my afternoon walk and you like being one of the first ones to greet me home.

You have become a mother hen of sorts and have taken on the responsibility of taking care of the chickens most mornings and evenings. You like making other people's needs one of your priorities. 

You have an amazing drawing style. Your cartoons are awesome and you have a unique way of capturing the world in pictures.

You loved the Lord of the Rings and often ask to make sure we don’t miss Story Club. You don't like it when the nights run late and we end up missing our time in Middle Earth. You love Bilbo and Goldberry. Makes sense. Combines two of the best things about you: you are a beautiful, little lady. 

You also love Couchechism and often ask to do it. It would be easy for someone to think that you just want more treats, but they'd be wrong. You genuinely love couchechism and hearing lessons from the Bible from your dad.

You like listening to audiobooks and are making your way through the Harry Potter series for the first time. As it's gone along, you've hit some bumps in the Hogwarts' road, but you've hung in there despite the disappointments.

You are a good sister and spend most of your evenings staying up too late with Penelope goofing around. You love watching the plays that she puts on just for you.

You make friends easily and have a few pen pals that you write back and forth to. You have loved our new neighborhood and church and have made friends with lots of people. You find people to sit with during our fellowship meal following service each week.

You read the whole New Testament for the first time this summer doing Same Page Summer with your sisters and we still read a chapter or two from your Bible every Saturday morning during breakfast burritos.

You are a great daughter and I love being your dad. You are beautiful, smart, funny, caring, considerate, cuddly, strong, fun, and funny. I hope you have a great birthday and that you continue to grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and people.

Happy Birthday, Laurelai Rush!

Here's to many more.

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,380: not so stupid

Proverbs 12:1

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Stupid is a word children should not be allowed to say. Not because it is a "bad" word per se, but because it is a good one. It is the right word where well applied, but the wrong one where wrongly applied since it can do more damage than other words. That is because it is a strong word. It belongs to a class of words that carry their own weight with them wherever they go. For that reason, "stupid" is a dangerous word. Not so dangerous as to be banned, but dangerous enough as to be reserved for the mature.

Stupid is no more bad than swords are, but just as dangerous. A sword is a good thing in the hands of a gentleman, but a bad thing in the hands of a child. So, children should not say "stupid" for the same reason they shouldn't be given matches -- that is to say, they don't know how to use it yet and can't be trusted to remember.

Beyond the matter of danger, there is also the matter of propriety. You can use a gun to dig a hole in your front yard, but it will take a while and the cops will be called before you're done. That's because it is the wrong tool for the job. It CAN make a dent in your yard, but it cannot do so without raising a fuss in your neighborhood. You CAN use a machete to cut your carrots, but you cannot do it without making your dinner guests uneasy. Stupid is a word that is perfect where it fits the occasion and a mess wherever it doesn't. In other words, it causes more trouble than it solves when it is misapplied or misused. 

day no. 16,379: authority and ability; responsibility and desirability

"Many times traditional men try to take authority first. But authority cannot be taken, it can only be given. Responsibility can be taken, but nobody wants to do that. Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die." — Douglas Wilson,  Responsibility, Guilt, and the Ground of True Authority

Authority is desirable,

but impossible to get without deserving it.

Responsibility is undesirable,

but possible to take without deserving it.

Everybody wants authority,

but nobody wants responsibility.

Any man can take responsibility,

but no man can take it lightly.

Any man can grow into authority,

but no man can be born into it.

day no. 16,378: the hope of the better half

"Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World: III. The New Hypocrite

Compromise used to mean getting only some of what you wanted instead of getting all of what you wanted. The word means com = with + promittere = send forth, let go. The word promittere itself meaning pro = before + mittere = going. We get the word "mission" from mittere. So, a promise is something that takes place being the going. The words go before the handshake. The vow proceeds the marriage. Put all together, a compromise then is a departure from one thing in order to obtain some other thing. One gives up singleness to gain a spouse. One surrenders the hope of a whole loaf for the sake of guaranteeing a half of one. This is what a compromise used to mean. 

Socialism, however, is not rooted in giving up, but taking over. Therefore, the compromise they promote is not the getting of less bread, but the getting over wanting more. It doesn't want to rob the person of half a loaf, but the hope of a whole one. It employs envy to do the work of keeping consumption low in order to keep back more for itself. Socialism always deprives the people of its resources. The people, according to Socialist, are everyone except the one speaking. The people should be content with half a loaf of broad and be upset with anyone who wants more. This frees the socialist to have his half of everyone else's loaves and the whole portion of those who buy into their rhetoric entirely by giving up their bread altogether.

The goal of Socialism is the same as that of the whore who stood before Solomon heartlessly demanding her bloody half of a dead baby if only to keep anyone else from the hope of having a whole, living one.

day no. 16,377: she-man and the jesters of the universe

Romans 1:21-22

When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Whenever things begin to go dramatically wrong, it is easy to entertain the idea that some mastermind is somewhere at work. When things are too bad to be by accident, it does make sense to suspect that someone is up to something, but to assume that this someone is a sage is a mistake.

God's Word tells us that those who delight in darkness are getting dumber, not smarter. They aren't evil geniuses, but spiritual retards. That isn't to say that a clever chap can't be wicked in a creative way, but to say rather that greater evil is more often accompanied by greater delusion. Wickedness dates dum-dums, not sophicotties. 

That said, sliding down the slippery slope of sin does lead to greater depths of depravity and Christians should not be too slow to be shocked by the depths of evil the wicked will declare "good," On the other hand, Christians should not be too quick to assign genius to their eagerness in getting there so quickly.

After all, these are the nit wits that think you can get electricity from your walls to your toaster even after you cut the prongs off the cord. These are the "geniuses" who think rubbing two bolts together can hold up a house. These are the dummies who imagine two nuts can screw. All that to say, don't expect a lot of wisdom to come out of that camp.

Do not assume creativity for what amounts simply to corruption. There are any number of ways, to be sure, to ruin something, but discovering new ones doesn't make you smart or brave, it makes you demented.

So, was the pandemic a plannedemic? Perhaps. Because of the problem of evil, I would not put it passed them. It isn't too wicked an idea to imagine someone having. But if it was, it only highlights how bad they are at this. If someone invented a virus to wean out humanity and the best they could come up with is a flu-like bug that leaves over 99% of its victims alive, I think the jokes on them.

These people can't get anything right. If they thought they could single-handedly wet wipe the world of all its deplorable elements, they miscalculated. What kind of kraken kills less than 1% of those it meets in battle? One concocted by the same academic institutions that brewed up womyn's studies as a smart way for you to rack up debt. They're only good at ruining things by coincidence. They mean to build and break things to hell. They mean to turn on the lights, but refuse to flip the binary on/off switches since they insist that they won't work anymore.

Ephesians 4:17-18

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

In summary, don't forget that sin is stupid. If it worked, it wouldn't. If it made sense, it couldn't. If nonsense was sensible, it would kill what it called itself. If silliness were seriousness, it wouldn't have the last laugh. Sin is insanity. It cannot defend itself nor define itself without borrowing from something it insists doesn't exist. It is incoherent. In the meantime, however, Babylon Babels on, but the Word on the street is their ziggurats are all rot.

day no. 16,376: Christ commends humility and condemns pride

Job 22:29; Proverbs 15:33, 16:18-19, 29:23, Matthew 18:4, 23:12; Luke 1:51-52, 14:11, 18:14

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Christ commends humility and He condemns pride.

1 Peter 5:5-6

God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

The proud can never ascend high enough nor the humble ever bow low enough.

James 4:6-7

But [God] gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Humility is confidence in God. Pride is confidence in self.

Pride produces despair. Humility produces relief.

James 4:10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

The proud ascend but for a moment and thereafter it is only ever downhill; the humble descend but for a moment before they are raised up higher than man can reach.

Psalm 145:14

The LORD upholds all who are falling

and raises up all who are bowed down.

The fallen will be raised up if they bow, but felled if they won't.

Psalm 146:8

The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down.

Bowing down with your body is like tippy toeing with your soul.

“We become taller when we bow.” ― G.K. Chesterton

day no. 16,375: kings will always come for your kids

1 Samuel 8:10-11

So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots.”

Kings will always come for your kids.

They will enlist them in their service and see them as their resources. This obviously includes military endeavors but don’t miss that it also means civilian endeavors. The king wants our kids to be his soldiers, but also his citizens; but whatever they are, he wants them to be his and at his disposal. The State wants to do away with lesser magistrates and spheres of authority. It resents sheriffs and parents who have sway in their respective spheres.

"From Caesar to Dewey, from Nebuchadnezzar to Mann, those who have given ultimate authority to the state have consistently coveted other people's children." — Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence

It is not that the State opposes parenting, don’t take that bait; they have no problem with parenting, it is simply that the State desires to be the one running for parent unopposed. The State knows your kids need a dad. That's why they're so eager to get other dads out of their way. The State knows your kids need a mom. That's why they're so eager to get other moms out of their way. They rid the land of dads by incentiviizing abortion, divorce, and welfare. They rid the land of moms by incentivizing daycare, healthcare, State insurance, and getting more women into upper eduction, out of the home, and into the permanent workforce. 

"Statism results from people seeking to be pagan in their modes and methods of governing themselves -- that we also may be like all the nations (1 Sam. 8:19-22). When they take this route, the state always and immediately assumes parental responsibility for children." -- Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence

There will be parenting, it is inescapable. The State knows that far too many Christians are asleep to this fact. They're hoping to catch you off guard and nap your kids while you're daydreaming. Don't sleep on the State. Don't hire it as a Nanny. It doesn't want to watch your kids for you, it wants to woo them away from you. It even has the audacity to coerce you into thanking them for the privilege of being bereft.

Whether it is Pharaoh trying to drown them, Saul trying to enlist them, Nebuchadnezzar trying to re-educate them, Herod trying to slay them, or Caesar trying to enroll them. Kings always come for the kids.

day no. 16,374: poverty and productivity

"What helps the poor is access to work. But as we looked into the good intentions of so many people, we see that a lot of them just think that solidarity with poor people means giving them things." — Father Robert Sirico

Better to be given something to do than something to consume. Productive work gives integrity to the worker and something that they can give to others.

Give a man a fish, he eats a meal; teach a man to fish; he provides a meal for others.

Men do not need something simply given to them, they need the ability to given something back.

"Wealth is when you produce more than you consume." — Father Robert Sirico

True wealth is producing more than you consume and providing more than you require. It is not possessing much, but producing much. Wealth is not mere accumulation. It is production. It is having the means to make. It is having the ability to meet needs. It isn't knowing where to get them, but being able to manufacture them. Hiring a man to carry your bags does not make you a strong man. Hiring a man to fly you across the ocean does not make you free to roam. Those things can be taken from you. Wealth is not the ability to pay others to serve you, but the ability to serve others through your productivity. The man strong enough to carry another’s load may charge them for his service, but he can carry his own load for free.

"Centering an economic worldview around consumption is man-focused in the most trite and simplistic of ways; but developing an entire ecosystem of thought and action around production, well that honors the human person, and opens the door to a sustainable, soul-giving eradication of poverty." — David L. Bahnsen, There's No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths

Poverty is not simply being without the things you need, it is the greater issue of not being needed. In other words, it is easier to go without something you need than to go about as something unnecessary. That isn't too say that there are not essentials that everyone needs to exist, but to say that existence requires a reason to exist more than it requires the means to continue existing.

day no. 16,373: our children are not to be given unto Caesar

“To commit our children to the core of irreligious persons is to commit lambs to the superintendency of wolves." — Timothy Dwight

Rest assured, wolves need Jesus, but what they don't need is easier access to lambs. The blood of the Lamb will never be accepted by those getting fat and sassy on the blood of lambs. 

If a wolf is going to meet Jesus, it should be in the form of a Shepherd's staff. If shepherds are concerned about converting wolves, they should begin by confronting them, not by feeding them.

State schools are often seen by Christians as mission fields for their children when they are, in fact, the mission field of State. Secular education is the outreach program of the world, but they make the savages foot the bill for the mission trip and then demand a “Thank you” to boot.

"We often overlook one important implication of Christ's teaching: We not only should render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but we also must not render to Caesar what is God's. What should we use to determine 'what is God's' in this context? Who bears God's image -- the imago Dei? The answer certainly includes our children. This means that our children may not be rendered to Caesar. But the history of the world teaches us that this is one of the first things Caesar demands... Christian parents who send Christian children to government schools when those children are uneducated and unprepared are rendering to Caesar what is God's." — Douglas Wilson, Excuse Absence

We should give Caesar what is his. But of all the things that are his, the authority to decide what belongs to him, is NOT given. In other words, Caesar is not in charge of what belongs to Caesar. He doesn't get to determine his own jurisdiction. He does not set the scope his own sphere.  He can only insist on getting what God has said is his, but our children are not included in that. They do not in any way belong to him. Christians need to stop the insane habit of handing off to Caesar what belongs to God.

“We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.” — Voddie Baucham

day no. 16,372: the reign of the cowards come to an end

"Everywhere there is the persistent and insane attempt to obtain pleasure without paying for it. Thus, in politics the modern Jingoes practically say, 'Let us have the pleasure of conquerors without the pains of soldiers: let us sit on sofas and be a hardy race.’ Thus, in religion and morals, the decadent mystics say: ‘Let us have the fragrance of sacred purity without the sorrows of self-restraint; let us sing hymns alternately to the Virgin and Priapus.’ Thus in love the free-lovers say: ‘Let us have the splendour of offering ourselves without the peril of committing ourselves; let us see whether one cannot commit suicide an unlimited number of times.’ Emphatically it will not work. There are thrilling moments, doubtless, for the spectator, the amateur, and the aesthete; but there is one thrill that is known only to the soldier who fights for his own flag, to the aesthetic who starves himself for his own illumination, to the lover who makes finally his own choice... All around us is the city of small sins, abounding in backways and retreats, but surely, sooner or later, the towering flame will rise from the harbour announcing that the reign of the cowards is over and a man is burning his ships." — G.K. Chesterton, In Defense of Rash Vows

The reign of the cowards is characterized by men wanting the reputation of a patient man on time table of an impatient one, the respect of a faithful man with the responsibilities of an unfaithful one, the harvest of a hard working man with the leisure of a lazy one, or the long term success of a fruitful life with the short term pleasures of a fruitless one. In short, men want the orgasm without the child, the buzz without the hangover, the satisfaction without the work, and the fire without the burn, but the reign of those cowards will come to an end; and the rumor is that someone has found a book of matches.

day no. 16,371: evil and neutrality fight on the same side

"As we reject the myth of neutrality, we must remember that we are not rejecting neutrality as a bad thing, but rather as an impossible thing." — Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence

Christians are not opposed to neutrality per se, but lies. Neutrality is an idol fashioned by fallen man to excuse his indifference to Christ's commands. Neutrality is no use to the one in fellowship with God. Only one seeking to shirk his responsibilities would invent a device allowing him to do so. Alacrity does not require an excuse for the sulks.

Plainly stated, enmity is a given in the world by the Word of God. Any attempt to pretend it away is vanity. Neutrality is then just another weapon intended to disarm Christians.

Evil and neutrality fight for the same master and for the same result: the eradication of good.

"The Lord Himself teaches that neutrality is impossible: 'He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad' (Matt. 12:30 KJV). We either are going His direction, or we are not. We either are saying what He says, or we contradict it. Because He is the very Word of God, He is silent about nothing. This means that everything we say will either be an amen or a disagreement." — Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence

The doctrine of the antithesis demands a decision. The word "decide" means "to cut off." A man is forced, by God, to cut himself off from something. The illusion of some third place from which you can judge black and/or white is wish fulfillment for cowards. It is the pacifistic polemics of small souls who'd rather not pick a side. But not picking a side is the tell-tale maneuver of just the one side. Only one side of the equation advocates that kind of milquetoast and it is the one opposing the rule and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Christ claims to be and is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He told His disciples in the Great Commission that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him and that they were therefore to disciple the nations. Thus, by definition, anyone or anything (including any institution) that does not acknowledge His authority rebels against it." — Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence

No earthly authority is absolute. This includes any authority’s ability to authorize itself. Therefore, no institution has the authority to reject its Author and any that pretends to do so is cruising for a bruising.

day no. 16,370: practical magic

"The refusal of God to explain His design is itself a burning hint of His design. The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

God gives glory to Himself and meaning to man by keeping some things to Himself. By refusing to explain everything, He transforms a walk into an adventure. By promising hidden treasure, He transforms travel into exploration and digging into exhilaration. 

Proverbs 25:2

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing:

but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

God keeps the magic alive by keeping His tricks secret. He sustains the wonder of the world by using some sleight of hand. But in doing so, He also provides the possibility of honor to those who are able to figure some of them out and find ways to relay them to others without removing the fun from the finding.

Deuteronomy 29:29

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

God has not withheld the essential details of life, but He has made the daydreams of livelihood harder to obtain. He has handed over enough of the necessary information for anyone to find life, but not so much of it to keep anyone from enjoying it.

day no. 16,369: sweet sixteen wedding anniversary!

My marriage is officially old enough to drive. I already liked the direction we were headed and now we have the means to get further down the road. Too many marriages end before they learn how to drive. There are treasures buried in the hills of longevity that only commitment can unearth. I love my wife and am happy to be celebrating another year of marriage with her and all of those God has given us through oneness. Here's to many more!

Psalm 128

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

day no. 16,368: beyond a reasonable doubt

"In dealing with the arrogant asserter of doubt, it is not the right method to tell him to stop doubting. It is rather the right method to tell him to go on doubting, to doubt a little more, to doubt every day newer and wilder things in the universe, until at last, by some strange enlightenment, he may begin to doubt himself." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

The doubter’s biggest problem is not the strength of his doubt, but the weakness of it. He is too sure of his doubts. He is confident that he has a case against God. The doubter does not need more confidence, but less. He doesn't need more assurance, but more humility. It is the doubter's pride that keeps him from doubting more. He holds God at a distance because he has some reservations he cannot get passed, but he needs to doubt his reservations, not God's revelations. He places too much faith in his own speculations and too much suspicion in God's revelations. He needs to flip the script and begin to suspect his speculations and to place his faith in God's revelations.

When dealing with a doubter, do not attempt to answer his questions, but encourage him to continue questioning. He hasn't doubted enough. He needs to apply the strength of his accusation against his own accusations. He needs to run his doubts out far enough to doubt even his own doubts. It is not that the doubter cannot believe, it is that he already believes fiercely in his own doubts and cannot imagine recanting them. He finds his doubts reasonable, but he needs to doubt his reasons for thinking so. He does not doubt the reasonableness of his doubts. Encourage him to keeping going until he repents of his certainty. Then, he may see that blessed assurance that the blessed are those who find no assurance in themselves.

2 Corinthians 10:18

For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

The doubter suffers not for the strength of his doubting, but the weakness.

...

POST SCRIPT

For an example of how to apply this technique, observe the following question and answer by Doug Wilson

QUESTION:

I could really do with some counsel on how to help my wife through some doubt. She was baptised as a professing believer at the age of 6, but in her teen years, after growing up in a Christian home and attending church as a professing believer, she went astray into worldliness. Now she thinks she has no hope because (according to her) she fell away like a Hebrews 6 person. Please help.

Jonty

ANSWER:

Jonty, the problem is not that she is doubting, but that she is doubting the wrong things. For example, she seems sure that she fell away like the person in Heb. 6. But is she Jewish? Was she delivered from a sacrificial system where she had to keep sacrificing bulls and goats? Did she get on a boat to return to Jerusalem just in time for the Romans to sack it? No to all three. So why is she so confident that Heb. 6 could apply to her? So she is being confident, like we all are, and she has doubts, like we all do. But her confidence is in the wrong place, and so are her doubts.

Doug

day no. 16,367: witness stands

"[God] is quite willing to be prosecuted. He only asks for the right which every prosecuted person possesses; he asks to be allowed to cross-examine the witness for the prosecution." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

God is not above being called to the witness stand, and is not, if it comes to that, beneath the right to ask some questions of His own. A judge is not exempt from the possibility of committing a crime merely because he is in the business of hearing charges against others. God does not appear to be as offended by the presence of the accusation against Him as by the absence of His opportunity to ask some questions in return. God is not opposed to trials per se, but sham trials are to Him an abomination. Either submit to a cross-examination or drop the charges, but don't expect to lob bombs at God and then refuse Him the dignity of returning fire.

God is not as afraid of your questions as you are of His. In fact, He is not afraid at all. But your fear consumes you. That is why you demand an audience with a caged lion and not a wild one. There's a reason why you long to haul Him into court rather than seek Him in the Sahara. For whatever reason. the accuser assumes the courtroom is a home court advantage. But the one who calls God to the stand demanding answers may just find that He does show up. But He sits down as the Judge, not the defendant, in response to the one who has no plans of taking the stand himself.

day no. 16,366: where there's a want to

"Job is not a pessimist. His case alone is sufficient to refute the modern absurdity of referring everything to physical temperament. Job does not in any sense look at life in a gloomy way. If wishing to be happy and being quite ready to be happy constitutes an optimist, Job is an optimist. He is a perplexed optimist; he is an exasperated optimist; he is an outraged and insulted optimist. He wishes the universe to justify itself, not because he wishes it be caught out, but because he really wishes it be justified." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

Job is uncertain as to the why's. He doesn't know or understand the reason for what is happening to him, but he knows that there must be one. He trusts the One in charge of his circumstances. He takes the good with the bad without refusing to call God "good." His confusion isn't as to whether or not God is sovereign or whether or not He is good, but as to what good his suffering is accomplishing. He doesn't ask, "What good is this?" rhetorically in assuming that there cannot be a good answer, but rather insists that the One who knows is good and has His reasons. Job just wants to peek into what those reasons might be. He doesn't want God on the witness stand to defend Himself, but rather to explain Himself; not to justify himself in the face of God, but to see God justified face to face.

Whatever may be, Job wants to see God. His friends may have explanations according to what they know of God, but none of them hope to actually invoke His actual presence. They appeal to rules and regulations, but not to a Person. They would be shocked to find Him in their midst, which is the very thing Job desires more than anything. He wants answers, but he doesn't want them disembodied. He first and foremost wants the Answerer. He has some questions, but he wants to meet the Questioner.

"In a fine and famous blasphemy he says, 'Oh, that mine adversary had written a book!”'(31:35). It never really occurs to him that it could possibly be a bad book. He is anxious to be convinced, that is, he thinks that God could convince him. In short, we may say again that if the word optimist means anything (which I doubt), Job is an optimist. He shakes the pillars of the world and strikes insanely at the heavens; he lashes the stars, but it is not to silence them; it is to make them speak." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

Job wants to believe. He doesn't know what to believe and thinks answers would fill in the gaps for him, but above it all, he WANTS to believe. He isn't looking for convenient excuses for unbelief, he earnestly longs for confirmation of his belief, even if inconvenient. He acts out to gain God's attention, not to get away from it. Job is like Absalom setting fire to Joab's fields for the sake of gaining an audience. Unlike Absalom, however, he is on the floor throwing a fit in order to be interrupted, not in order to kick the legs out from under God. Where there's a want to, there's a way This is why Job meets God and Job's friends require his mediation on their behalf.

Job 42:8-9

My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.

Job is sure that God is good and has good reasons for all that He does. He is flummoxed for not knowing them, but faithful in knowing that they exist.

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

day no. 16,365: all education is religious

"Education is one of the most religious things we do." — Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence

All education is religious. It is impossible to escape. The question isn’t, “Does religion have a place in the classroom?” The question is, “What religion will be placed into the classroom?” All curricula are catechisms. All lessons are liturgical.

To educate anyone is to begin with an end in mind. The word "educate" means "to lead out of" which begs the questions, "Out of what?" and "Into what else?" You cannot educate someone unless you have both a place you want to take them and a reason to think that they need to be there. Presupposed, of course, is that they are not yet there, that you are, that you have the ability to lead them, the authority to do so, and an obligation to intervene. In this sense, education always has a telos. It must have an end game. In other words, it must believe in last things in order to lay down first ones. It must serve an Omega before it serves up the alphabet.

day no. 16,364: if God is given a permanent hall pass

"The school system that ignores God teaches its pupils to ignore God; and this is not neutrality. It is the worst form of antagonism, for it judges God to be unimportant and irrelevant in human affairs. This is atheism." — Gordon H. Clark

If God is given a permanent hall pass, we can assume His presence in the classroom isn't all that important. How much more so then, if He is expelled from the entire school? If the whole world of facts and information can go on well enough without Him, then the one fact that is necessarily being taught in every classroom is that God's presence doesn't matter. He is of no consequence. He is irrelevant. 

But if God is I AM then He is the only substance, rightly speaking. Everything else is derivative. He exists necessarily and everything else consists of His provision. To teach anything without God is to teach that the Triune God does not exist. If anything can be known without reference to Him, He is not the source of it. But if God is who He says He is, then we must include Him in everything. But not merely in a token nod or obligatory mention, but in celebration and recognition. This doesn't require one to use the Bible to teach math per se, but to teach that math is only possible because of the Word. Finite integers are only possible if their distance is consistently held in place by hands that cannot be shaken. A predictable world cannot be without a Subject. The predicate cannot stand on its own. It comes after the subject necessarily as a matter of importance and chronologically as of matter of temporality.

All that to say, any institution that does not acknowledge God is teaching first and foremost that God does not matter, regardless of whatever else they may or may not teach. The Government Schools are therefore, no place for a Christian child. 

day no. 16,363: a man cannot fit a philosophy into his head

"The modern habit of saying 'This is my opinion, but I may be wrong' is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong, I say that is not my opinion. The modern habit of saying 'Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me' – the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

A man's opinion is what he thinks is right. Now, he may be wrong, but if he thinks he may be wrong and goes on nevertheless as though he were right, he confirms that he is wrong. He is wrong because he either doubts what is doubtless or acts with certainty on something uncertain. He is wrong because he holds tightly to that which he claims is up for grabs. He is wrong because he holds loosely that which he claims is binding.

A man, strictly speaking, cannot possess a religion which only fills the square feet of his skull. He can only be caught up into a religion larger than he is. Religion is getting one's head into the heavens. Insanity is trying to get the heavens into one's head. It is a fool's errand and the end result is a mind that’s cracked. A man cannot fit all things into his head. But he may, by grace and through faith, in humility fit his mind into all other things. A philosophy of existence will not fit into a man's head, but a man may fit his head into a existing philosophy. 

day no. 16,362: God does not exist to give our lives meaning

"God is not only the chief character of the Old Testament; God is properly the only character in the Old Testament. Compared with His clearness of purpose, all the other wills are heavy and automatic, like those of animals; compared with His actuality, all the sons of flesh are shadows." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

In one respect, the world and everyone in it is God's chessboard. The pieces cannot be understood to be playing the game, at least, not in the same way that God is. Whatever He is doing is categorically, at minimum, very different from what they are doing when they run along their assigned squares. The rook is free to run back and forth or side to side, but he is not free to run or strike diagonally. Compared to God all things are pawns. This isn't to say that all things are, in fact, merely pawns, but to say that the distance between what God is doing and what we are doing is such that to even call us pawns is to praise us more than we merit. 

The triangle is not free to acquire a fourth line without surrendering the freedom to be a triangle. The sea horse cannot become a rocking horse without becoming wooden. 

"The Old Testament hero is no more supposed to be of the same nature as God than a saw or a hammer is supposed to be of the same shape as the carpenter. This is the main key and characteristic of Hebrew scriptures as a whole. There are, indeed, in those scriptures innumerable instances of the sort of rugged humor, keen emotion, and powerful individuality which is never wanting in great primitive prose and poetry. Nevertheless the main characteristic remains: the sense not merely that God is stronger than man, not merely that God is more secret than man, but that He means more, that He knows better what He is doing, that compared with Him we have something of the vagueness, the unreason, and the vagrancy of the beasts that perish." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

God is better at using men than they are at comprehending Him. He is a better at using us as a pen than we are at understanding what He is writing with us. God does not fill human life with meaning apart from Himself. He is all meaning and the means to make it. That is to say, God does not exist to give our lives meaning; we exist because He is full of meaning and felt like sharing.

day no. 16,361: cleanliness instead of godliness

“Cleanliness is not next to godliness nowadays, for cleanliness is made an essential and godliness is regarded as an offence.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Defense of Nonsense

Godliness was at one time considered virtuous and cleanliness, as a result, advantageous for its proximity to it. Godliness has since, in the Christian sense, been abandoned. Cleanliness is now only next to godliness in order to shove it out of the way.

Cleanliness is the new godliness.

When godliness was abandoned, cleanliness was not abandoned along with it. Far from being cast off, it was embraced; rather than being turned out, it moved into the vacancy left by godliness’s eviction. Deity, as it turns out, does not tolerate a vacuum. The position is never open. When Christendom was excommunicated, cleanliness was promoted.

"Many great religions, Pagan and Christian, have insisted on wine. Only one, I think, has insisted on soap. You will find it in the New Testament attributed to the Pharisees." — G. K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers

Our new age Pharisees are no less religious than the ones who killed Christ. They are equally up to the task of persecuting other's opinions and equally sure that theirs are the opinions of the pure. Accordingly, cleanliness is now the virtue. But now, godliness is nowhere near to it. So much so, that one cannot even say, "godliness is next to cleanliness." It's not. Cleanliness apparently needed some space. In fact, few things are now called "unclean" more than anything that clings to Christ. Christ is now considered the stain and antichristianity the spot remover. Christendom is called the irritant and cleanliness the disinfectant. Godliness is now considered the antithesis of cleanliness.

And as far as cleanliness is now venerated as a divine end in its own right, I suppose it, more or less, is its antithesis. For the seed of Eve will forever be at war with the seed of the Serpent, regardless of what name or form he takes: morality, progress, political correctness, tolerance, loving your neighbor, inclusion, or diversity. Yet a rotten egg by any other name would smell just as bad and Christ would still declare war on it.

"Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it." — G. K. Chesterton

Modernity calls for soap while it recants of its soul. It cannot tolerate soiled clothes, but it tottles about soiled souls. In the new world, sanctification is by sanitization, but salvation is never mentioned. If you catch a cold, you can catch hell and quarantine is akin to confession and no one, but you, can carry your sins.

"As Mr. Blatchford says, 'The world does not want piety, but soap -- and Socialism.' Piety is one of the popular virtues, whereas soap and Socialism are two hobbies of the upper middle class." — G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

It should not shock us to see soap and socialism running for office on the same party ticket. They both see people as scum in need a thorough scrubbing. While Christianity calls a man's best but filthy rags, it still offers him white robes if he agrees; whereas the cult of the clean calls man a pest and a disease and then encourages him to exterminate himself.

day no. 16,360: stone cold instruction

"If you can teach a child not to throw a stone, you can teach him when to shoot an arrow; if you cannot teach him anything, he will always have something to throw." — G.K. Chesterton

A child is born with both the ability and the desire to throw stones. This can, however, be curbed or corralled by discipline and instruction. If you can train a child to resist the urge to throw a stone, you can train him to hold the string until the right time to fire. A child with a trigger needs instruction on how to shoot and why, at whom to shoot and when. If they have been taught to stop throwing rocks, they can be taught to start shooting arrows.

John 8:7

He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.

The desire to sling stones come naturally. The discernment to know when to throw them, however, doesn’t. That must be taught. If you don’t take the time to teach your children discernment, that won't prevent them from throwing stones. They are going to do that without any instruction. Rocks will be tossed. The only questions are at whom and when.

All that to say, the native soul is full of pluck and lacks no creativity when surveying things to pluck up. Thus, all children should be rock enrolled. Everyone needs stone cold instruction.

David knew how to throw a rock and which were best for slinging. He knew how and he knew when. 

1 Samuel 17:36

“Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

We gain nothing in raising a generation of boys too timid to toss rocks, but we do lose our fighting chance against the giants. What we get in manners, we give up in mettle.

day no. 16,359: pride is weakness seeking praise

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction,

and an haughty spirit before a fall

Pride is weakness seeking praise;

Humility is praising the strength of another.

Proverbs 29:1

He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck,

shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Pride is too strong to bend;

Humility too weak to harden.

The weakness of pride is its inability to back off. It cannot stop. It needs approval. Yet it corrupts what it covets. It covers what it gets in corrosion so that it never keeps. It always needs more. Yesterday's praise does not tarry. It evaporates in the kiln of discontent and unrequited care. No one can give enough to satisfy pride. No one can match its self-concern and yet it demands it of everyone. Pride cannot resist the urge to pat its own back. It is not strong enough to say, "No," to itself. It rushes ahead of itself with itself.

The weakness of humility is its strength. It blesses the strength of the one who sustains it. It freely ascribes worth and virtue to the strength of another. It is strong in laud and weak in sheepishness. Humility is not shy, it is bold. It loudly boasts of all that has been done on its behalf. It is no shrinking violet. It shouts. It declares with decibels the glory of its God and the blessings of its benefactor. It is in no hurry to change the subject. 

Pride flings frail palaces at the sky,

As a man flings up sand,

But the firm feet of humility

Take hold of heavy land.

Pride juggles with her toppling towers,

They strike the sun and cease,

But the firm feet of humility

They grip the ground like trees.

-- G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

day no. 16,358 that thou mayest live long

Ephesians 6:1-3

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Four score and five years ago my father was born on this day near Doone, IA.

Two score and six years ago my parents were married on this day in Orange City, IA.

If it were not for these two dates, I would not exist. By God's providence He brought my father into this world and by His grace He brought my parents together. He granted them fruitfulness in marriage and provided them with a son and me with life.

No one lives for their own sake. No one brought themselves into existence.

Romans 14:7-8

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps. 24:1). Upon no one else does everything rely and for no one else will everything wait. The world goes on with or without us. It does not revolve around us or for us. It is His and if we are here, it is for His glory.

So praise God for life. Praise God for bringing my father into existence and his father before him. Praise God for my mother and for bringing my parents together into the covenant of marriage that I might be born into this world. Praise God for life, breath, and everything else.

day no. 16,357: when the sun is down, sin is still up

“Satan can climb housetops, and enter closets, and even if we could shut out that foul fiend, our own corruptions are enough to work our ruin unless grace prevent. Reader, beware of evening temptations. Be not secure. The sun is down but sin is up. We need a watchman for the night as well as a guardian for the day. O blessed Spirit, keep us from all evil this night. Amen.”  — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Sin never sleeps.

Go to bed in battle gear.

Do not cap off a long, hard day of faithfulness by taking a break from faith. You need a respite from faith like you need a break from breathing. Do not let your guard down. Do not imagine you have it so good that you could not go bad if forgotten at the back of the fridge. This is not a matter of perpetually doubting your salvation, but a matter of perpetually proving it. The temptation is to see lulls in the battle as an opportunity to take a break by taking off your armor for a moment.

1 Kings 20:11

So the king of Israel answered and said, “Tell him, ‘Let not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.’"

You do not take your armor off until the battle is won. You do not take off your gloves in between rounds. You do not boast of victory before your enemy is defeated. 

"Never laugh at live dragons." — J.R.R. Tolkien

Laugh when you're eating dragon steak, but not before. Do not get fat and sassy, but stay in fighting spiritual trim. Don't let your sword rust or your strength atrophy.

Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Put on all the armor provided and keep it on. You cannot predict when the evil day will come, but you can prepare to stand in it.

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” — Gen.Norman Schwarzkopf

Suit up.

Stay sharp.

day no. 16,356: woe to those who walk around unarmed

"And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house." - 2 Samuel 11:2

“They are well kept whom God keeps, but woe unto those who go forth into the world, or even dare to walk their own house unarmed. Those who think themselves secure are more exposed to danger than any others. The armour-bearer of Sin is Self-confidence... David should have been engaged in fighting the Lord's battles, instead of which he tarried at Jerusalem, and gave himself up to luxurious repose, for he arose from his bed at eventide. Idleness and luxury are the devil's jackals, and find him abundant prey. In stagnant waters noxious creatures swarm, and neglected soil soon yields a dense tangle of weeds and briars.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Woe to those who walk around unarmed.

Rest assured, where corruption calls the shots, cocksuredness calls shotgun. Self-confidence is the armor-bearer of sin. It attends to it and assists it in its campaign. Cocksuredness caddies for corruption, carrying its clubs and offering it counsel. Vain confidence leads to brackish. It leaves waters to rot. It converts living fluid into stagnant poison by bottling it up and keeping it on the shelf. A man with his jersey hanging in the rafters is no longer engaged in the contest. When he hangs it up, he hangs it all and proves an easy target for the kind of creatures found in fetid waters.

Woes pounce upon those in repose.

You cannot take a break from fighting sin without being broken by it. Sin doesn't call off the dogs when you call it quits.

Watch is the word.

Stand guard.

But don't keep your head on a swivel out of fear. The reason you fight is to protect what you have, not to prove that you have it. We keep watch over the city we inhabit, not in order to inhabit it. We suit up and battle for the salvation we possess, not in order to obtain it. Do not fight out of fear. Do not lose sleep over sin in the shadows out of concern for losing the light. The battle is proof of God's promises. If there were no salvation, there would be no warfare. The enmity would be exhausted. But since a seed of Eve has prevailed over the seed of the serpent, enmity is perpetual until His return. 

Until then, woe to those who oppose His saints. The gates of Hell will not prevail and the faithful will be justified in their fisticuffs.

day no. 16,355: whether to Gehenna or the gates of Heaven

Down to Gehenna,

or up to the Throne,

He travels the fastest

who travels alone.

— Rudyard Kipling

A good way to go to Hell is to go it alone. 

Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seems right to a man,

but its end is the way to death.

If a man has no other source of wisdom than himself, his last step will be into death. He will live according to what he thinks is best and it will mislead him. He will not receive revelation, but will live by speculation. His best guesses, however, won't get him out of the grave to which he goes.

The only way to get to Heaven is to get after it. Those who go to Heaven make a go at it.

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” — Martin Luther

No man can believe or die for you. No man can make his belief your belief so as to compensate or excuse your unbelief and no man can die your death so as to provide a way of escape from death for you. 

No man, that is, save Christ.

Hebrews 9:27-28

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.

No man except the God-man, Jesus Christ, can successfully live and die vicariously. He, alone, lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died in order to save us from the lives we've led and the death we deserve. No other man can do this for you. No parent, relative, pastor, or friend -- only Jesus!

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Christ's vicarious atonement alone is victorious. He who walks in Christ alone enters into the fellowship of the Father.

2 Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

day no. 16,354: when we can do nothing, Jesus does everything

Mark 10:27

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

The only thing anyone needs to be saved is the one thing most of them refuse to have... nothing.

Everyone who thinks they’re someone thinks too much of themselves. They have too much. They imagine salvation is a high jump when it is actually a limbo — not a matter of how high can you fly, but how low can you go? 

1 Corinthians 1:28-29

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Those on the ground looking up at Babel in the distance were better off than those on its roof looking down their noses. That proud tower came down and was reduced to nothing.

James 4:6

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Everyone gets something. The proud get push back and the humble get help.

“When we can do nothing Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

day no. 16,353: short prayers are long enough

“Lord, save me.” - Matthew 14:30

“Short prayers are long enough. There were but three words in the petition which Peter gasped out, but they were sufficient for his purpose. Not length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. If our prayers had less of the tail feathers of pride and more wing they would be all the better.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Three words: 

(1) Lord

(2) save

(3) me

LORD:

We begin by acknowledging that we are speaking to God Almighty. He is the Lord. He is our Maker and Sustainer. He is omnipotent and compassionate.

If He were only omnipotent, we would have no hope of His affection. He could hear, but would He care?

If He were only compassionate, we would have no hope in His attention. He would care, but would He be competent?

SAVE:

We recognize the danger of our situation. We take responsibility for our sinking and say something. We do not pout, we shout. We do not beat ourselves up, we ask Him to bear us up.

ME:

We confess our inadequacy. We agree with God in this matter and refer to ourselves as direct objects. “Me” is the recipient of another’s action. We ask Him to act on us. We die to “I” and beg on behalf of “me.”

“Lord, save me,” is not sexy. It is not likely to win the applause of anyone else listening. But the one who says it and means it isn’t talking to anyone other than the Lord. And He hears it and adds His, “Amen!”

2 Corinthians 1:20

For all the promises of God find their Yes in (Jesus). That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.