I don’t know about you, but as the summer fast approaches, I’ve started asking myself what I should focus on or pursue these next few months. Here’s a verse that’s been coming to mind.

Isaiah 66:2
All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

Even though God does not owe us anything, in His grace He says He has regard for people who exhibit three traits. Here’s how I’ve been thinking through this as I try to apply this verse to my life.

Humility: This doesn’t mean I think less of myself, it just means to think about myself less. Humility also entails thinking about ourselves rightly in light of the gospel. Therefore, will we practice turning our thoughts toward God and others rather than spending most of our time analyzing our own thoughts and feelings (2 Cor. 3:18)?

Contrite in spirit: The literal word here is crippled. What should cripple the spirit of a Christian when we are supposed to be living in joy? The answer is that we should be broken-hearted when we think about the sin that’s still remaining in our life. We should have a realistic view of the sin nature that still lives in us and be saddened by how our actions grieve the heart of God (Romans 7:22-24).

But here’s how we can experience joy and be contrite in spirit at the same time. Whenever you begin to be proud about how “well” you think you're doing, remember how far you have yet to go. This keeps us from minimizing or cheapening the grace of God. On the other hand, whenever you feel depressed about your sin, remember that Jesus has paid for all of it and that He who began a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6)! As Americans, we tend to emphasize the blessings of God and forget about being poor in spirit. But God is actually glorified the most when gospel-centered, broken-hearted Christians sing, “Amazing love, how can it be?” loud and clear.

Trembles at God’s Word: How do I value God’s Word? The answer is by making time this summer to read the Bible. And then when I hear from the Word, working to obey it. Simple, but these are constant challenges in my life as I’m sure they are for you too.

The tendency during the summer is to take a break from things and to relax. I would agree that this is a worth while plan in many areas. But we should never take a break from being Christ followers and working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Let's press on toward holiness even during the summer months!

The story of King Saul is one filled with tragedy and missed opportunities. Even though King Saul lived in a different time period, we should view his story not as ancient history, but as a warning. This is because we know that ultimately there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10) and that the same sinful tendencies Saul struggled with are present in our hearts today.

One of these tendencies is our desire to modify God's Word rather than obey it completely. Let me explain what I mean.

The First Modification
In 1 Samuel 13, Saul is waiting for Samuel to arrive in Gilgal and make a peace offering to the Lord before Israel goes into battle. God had clearly commanded that the peace offering was to be done by the priest and not the king. However, Samuel doesn't show up after seven days. The pressure of the situation gets to Saul, and instead of holding fast to the entire command of God, he makes an adjustment that will better fit his needs. He steps into Samuel's role and offers the sacrifice himself. He obeys some of what God says, but not all of it. Saul probably meant well, but Samuel replies with this rebuke: "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you." (1 Samuel 13:13)

The Second Modification
Just two chapters later we see that God commands Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites and not leave any person or creature alive because of their sin. Again, Saul makes some modifications to God's commands. He destroyed the Amalekites but he keeps their king alive along with the best sheep and oxen. He goes along with the people's desire to offer these animals as a sacrifice to the Lord rather than destroying them. After all, the people weren't taking the animals for themselves, they were going to offer them as sacrifices to the Lord in order to please Him. Surely God would be pleased with their vertically-focused changes to His command.  

What This Means For Us
After reading these stories, I was struck by the realization that we often make similar modifications when we come up against commands in Scripture that are hard to follow. Sometimes, certain commands that were once easy to follow may become difficult to obey due to our changing circumstances. One area of obedience that immediately came to my mind was the area of sexual purity.

It is hard to continually follow God's commands, especially when the season of singleness lasts longer than expected.  Instead of waiting until marriage to live together and engage in sexual intimacy, we are tempted to tell ourselves that God will approve of our modifications, to live with our partner and engage in a sexual relationship before committing to a covenant of marriage, in light of how godly the rest of the relationship is or in light of our intention to someday marry this person. Like Saul, who could feel the threat of the Philistine army bear down on him more and more each of the seven days that Samuel wasn't there, we begin to believe that following God's commands fully will actually leave us worse off than before.  So we take matters into our own hands and we try to modify God's commands, making adjustments for our own circumstance while trying to keep the "spirit" of the biblical commands. We obey some of what God has said, but not all of it. After all, we tell ourselves that "pretty soon we'll be married and we'll be able to start fully obeying God’s Word then."

This blog isn't meant to be pointed to just one group of Christian brothers and sisters, however. The second area that came to my mind (which was a conviction for me) was God's command to visit widows and orphans in their affliction (James 1:27). Obeying that command requires time, sacrifice and intentionality. Sometimes I try convince myself that God would surely be fine with me passing on obedience to this command since he knows how much I already invest in the people at my church and in my small group. That is a modification.

Those are just two examples of many. (How about the command to fast in Matthew 6:16-17?)

The biggest takeaway for me was this; what if I stopped spending time and energy on figuring out how to modify God's commands and instead spent it on just obeying what He has said? Samuel's response to Saul is so vividly makes this point.

Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king.

This passage foreshadows Saul's ultimate downfall. In 1 Samuel 28, Saul consults a medium and engages in the sin of divination. Why is this act so offensive to the Lord? The reason is best summarized by John Piper when he says, "Divination is seeking to know what to do in a way that ignores the word and counsel of God." While none of us will probably consult a medium in our lifetime, we do act in similar ways as Saul does.

When we seek to modify God's Word, we often begin seeking out those who approve of our new viewpoint in their preaching, blogs or writings. We start listening to them more and more. We find other sources of wisdom instead of holding fast to the pure Word of God. We give in to the modern teaching which says that God will allow you to make adjustments to His Word as needed as long as you mean well. The idea that holding fast to God's Word is worth it, no matter what it costs you in comfort and convenience, has been lost on our generation.

So what happens when we are convinced that we must obey God fully, but in our attempt to follow through, we fail? This is where the gospel comes in to play. God knows that we can't keep His laws perfectly no matter how hard we try. When we fail, we can confess our sin, knowing that He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). The reason we seek to obey all of what God has said is because we believe in Him. We believe God when He says His commands are ultimately for our good and for His glory. We believe Him when He says His desire is to bless us. And we believe His promises to never leave us, no matter how hard life gets because we are obeying His Word. The Bible stands as a testimony for us to stop spending energy modifying God's Word and instead seek to obey all of it with all of our heart.

Joshua 1:8-9
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Mark 5:1-20 tells the story of when Jesus heals a man oppressed by demons. In fact, this man has so many demons in him, that when Jesus asks for his name he replies, "Legion, for we are many." The story provides such interesting insight into the relationship between God and the servants of the Evil One.

What I notice right away is that the demons recognize the authority of Jesus. They treat Him as the Lord. He is the King. He is the ultimate ruler. Even though they are diametrically opposed to the person and mission of Jesus, they know their place. They beg Jesus not to "torment them" and then ask him for permission to enter into the herd of pigs and not be banished out of the country.

It could be said, that in some ways, they recognize and conform to the lordship of Jesus more readily than Christians often do.

What then distinguishes Christ followers from others who acknowledge the power of God? In Romans 10:9-10, Paul tells us that two things occur when we come to Jesus and are saved. First, we must confess that Jesus is Lord. Second, we must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and then place our trust in the finished work of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. It's this second part that distinguishes us from the demons.

Is it enough to simply obey the commands of Jesus? Isn't this what the demons do in this story? Why then are the demons cursed to an eternity apart from God even though they recognize that He's the king of the universe?

It's because they do not love Him. The greatest command God ever gave was to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Why do you obey God? Why do you do the "right thing?" What makes you read your Bible or witness to that neighbor who you know doesn’t know Jesus? What makes you sing on Sunday morning?

We can obey out of duty or obligation, but that kind of response is not much different than what the demons do. Instead, we are called to adore Him. To worship Him. To enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts. To over and over again look at the cross and see the marvelous mercy and grace that has been poured out on us.

We respond to God with love. And that makes all the difference.