The people who walked in great darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness– on them the light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, You have increased its joy, they rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor you have broken as on the day of Midian. For all the boots of the trampling warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us, the government rests upon his shoulders and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. Isa 9:2-7.
Two thousand years after Jesus arrived on earth to fulfill this prophecy, how is it going for us? Is there terror? Violence? Oppression? Intimidation? Do justice, righteousness and peace prevail in this world? Do we have good governance?
My client, the Loma Linda University Medical Center, treated victims of the December 2 terrorist shooting in San Bernardino. There are now armed uniformed officers on duty on the floors of this major Christian institution. It’s not really the terrorism we are concerned about. It is the gang violence that plagues our adjacent communities and sends us a steady stream of gunshot victims.
When I go to the local courthouse, I am subjected to metal detection and pat downs. That didn’t happen twenty years ago, except in criminal courts. Terrorist attacks occur in hometowns like St. Cloud, Minnesota, San Bernardino, California, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida.
In Syria and Iraq, superpowers posture and maneuver, while hundreds of thousands die and millions are dispossessed because of their ethnicity or religion.
I got a lot of laughs back in the fall by sharing a Facebook post that said, “I just saved a lot of money on Christmas presents by discussing politics on Facebook.” Offer an opinion and the insults and invective will begin to fly.
You don’t have to use social media to know that the incivility is increasing in the public square, falsehoods are freely offered as fact, rhetoric and public conduct coarsen, and the rule of law is given lip service to those who would govern us and their supporters.
Why isn’t Jesus, “the true Light, which enlightens everyone,” (John 1:9) making the difference Isaiah prophesied?
Humankind, by and large, has never chosen Jesus Christ as its difference. He’s a Wonderful Counselor, if only we would listen to him; a Mighty God, if we would let him rule over our lives; an Everlasting Father, if we would accept and rely on his love; and a Prince of Peace, if we would lay down our weapons and attitudes and let him have his way with us. He’d carry the responsibility for everything that concerns us on his shoulders if we would hand it off to him.
We keep striving to solve the problems and make the peace. Every generation experiences the same results, but we do not yield the fields of our battles to his promise of “endless peace.”
Read the prophesy again. Isaiah tells us how all the good things are supposed to happen. “The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this.” Jesus came on a mission to save us from our sins and restore us to God. (Matt 1:21-23). It’s God’s grace ever and always that will get it done — his Son is given to us.
A gift can only be accepted by those whose hands and hearts are empty and willing to receive it. Surrendering ourselves to Christ’s control is the only way to experience his salvation, his life and his peace.
Some of you send me emails and tell me you pray and surrender, but you still feel fearful, anxious, guilty and oppressed. You want to know why you don’t feel the peace and assurance that I write about.
The threshold to my answer is to ask whether you believe God exists and believe he will reward them for seeking him. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever approaches him must believe he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6).
The second step of my answer is to ask whether you are trying to look good to God or promising to be good in return for his favor. If either one of these points is true for you, anxiety will be the result because you are relying on your own strength and sin-weakened nature instead of having faith that Christ is righteous for you. (Romans 3:21-26).
It is the indisputable teaching of Scripture that none of us is righteous in ourselves. We are righteous only insofar as we believe Christ is righteous, that he has forgiven our sins and exchanged his perfect life for our imperfect lives, and now he gives us his life for our own. (Read, e.g., John 3, John 15 and Romans 6).
We live with God by faith, not by what we can see or feel. (2 Cor 5:7). Our hearts are conditioned by all kinds of things that we have done or experienced. The world tells us to “trust our heart,” but the heart cannot be trusted. Jeremiah observed, “The heart is deceitful above all things and incurable — who can know it” (Jer 17:9).
My heart betrays me when the only thing I seek from God is help for what I think I need to do or what I want to do any way. He wants total control which means I go to the cross with Christ and die to self and live thereafter by the love and power of his life (Gal 2:20; Col 3:1-4).
I wrestled with anxious thoughts and guilty feelings for some time after I entered a personal relationship with Christ. I reflected on his love for me and what he had done for me every day. A godly spiritual mentor spoke to me in compelling terms of the love of the Father and of Jesus for me. He had me read and reflect on Ephesians 1 to help me understand how God thinks about me.
Sitting on a hillside with my back against an oak tree, I was convicted in my heart of Christ’s deep and continuing love for me and just as convicted that I was sinful, stained and unworthy of that love. I was sickened of soul and I wanted to die. My prayer was “Father, I am so sorry for my insistence on my own way. I don’t have the strength or wisdom to surrender to you. So I’m asking you to take over regardless of how I feel and think. Please take complete control of me and let nothing of my old self remain.
Let your life alone remain when you are done.”
I left my life in his hands. That’s when peace came to my soul. Today, whenever I am tempted to take back control, I pray the same prayer. More and more of my life has been taken over by Christ even as he shows me where I am resisting. When I am anxious or afraid or even upset with God, I tell confess this in prayer. He can deal with honesty, and he can deal with my pretentious and defensive thoughts.
I choose to believe in God and his goodness even when I don’t feel like it. Every day I grow in the assurance of his love for me and his life in me.
There are some believers like the great Christian poet and hymn writer, William Cowper, whose despair and depression continue despite their faith. See http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/insanity-and-spiritual-songs-in-the-soul-of-a-saint . But our faith is in our Lord, not in ourselves.
Jesus came to earth to set us free from the things that bind us here so that we may enjoy eternity with him. The call of Isaiah’s prophesy and the gospel is to quit trying to work everything for ourselves and let Jesus take over. This is the essential message of Christmas.
“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,
Kent
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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.
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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.
Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.