Exciting day!
"Consider the Lilies: Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God" comes out tomorrow! In light of this, I want to do a special devotion today and give you a sneak peek by sharing the introduction chapter with you.
I hope this book encourages, comforts, and reminds you of the changeless character of our Heavenly Father.
If you haven't purchased your copy yet, you can do so by clicking here. It's the last day to save 10%.
Introduction to Consider the Lilies, by Jonny Ardavanis:
Welcome to Consider the Lilies. If you have picked up this book, odds are you or someone you love is worried or anxious.
I've been there too.
Truthfully, I never thought I would become a pastor. Nor did I ever anticipate writing a book—especially one related to worry and anxiety. In my ministry roles as a camp director, dean at a Christian university, and now as a pastor, I have seen the pain, angst, and confusion that plague the people of God. Worries howl in our minds like the winter wind, and the stresses and pressures of life make it difficult to tell where one worry stops and another one begins. College tuition? Car troubles? Heart problems? Rebellious child? The economy? I recently saw a T-shirt with these words boldly displayed across the front: "I've got 99 problems and anxiety is literally all of them." Maybe this is how you feel.
You may not be facing a tragedy right now, but deep down, you believe calamity and pain are coming your way and as a result you're anxious. If trouble has already struck, you assume it will surely strike again. You're longing for the internal clamor to stop. You're yearning for peace.
Providentially, I wrote this book during a difficult season of my life. I have battled my own health issues, but it was a different ball game to wait, pray, and pace the hospital corridors as we navigated significant medical challenges with our precious baby daughter. I write this book not as an occupant of the highbrow tower of expertise but as one who has come to experience the peace, joy, and comfort that our Father provides to His children in His Word and through His Spirit.
Not only have I had to navigate uncertainty, fear, and worry in my life, but I've walked through suffering with people whose pain far outweighs my own. At times I've wondered, Am I qualified to speak to people who have walked through trials far darker than my own? With that in mind, I find my burden to write is not because I may or may not have suffered on your level but because God through His Word offers hope and peace for the full range of human anxiety and worry.
As we look to the Bible and examine what God has to say about worry and anxiety, one powerful, comforting, and transforming truth emerges: gazing at God's glorious character is the pathway to peace.
When I use the word anxiety in this book, I am speaking of the state of mind in which we are filled with worry because we have set our minds on something less than the character of our good and loving God. Jesus says, "Do not be worried" (Matthew 6:25), he then goes on to illustrate that a misdirected gaze is at the heart of worry and anxiety. All too often, we focus on our problems, pressures, fears, and uncertainties, but Scripture says we must look to our heavenly Father and His loving and sovereign care for His creation.
Both our minds and bodies experience the effects of living as fallen creatures in a fallen world. Thus, I'm keen on appropriately addressing the reality that we are holistic beings. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote in Spiritual Depression, "You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind and spirit." Thankfully, God's Word speaks not only to the nourishment of our souls with clarity, gentleness, and wisdom but also to the stewardship and nourishment of our bodies.
Although not discussed in detail here, I believe there are times when we may need a skilled physician or competent biblical counselor to ascertain and address the various issues present in our bodies and souls. Moreover, there are indeed times when both our physical bodies and our spiritual souls overlap—they are integrated and interdependent in ways we cannot fully fathom.
My goal is simple: to help you behold the character of God. The Bible contains no secret sauce to peace; the answers to worry and anxiety are revealed in the plain reading of God's Word. The answer to anxiety has more to do with who God is than with who we are. The answer to our worry is not to look inward but to look upward.
As we consider God's character, I urge you to pray and ask God's Holy Spirit to impress these truths upon your heart and, in turn, lead you to "the rock that is higher than I" (Psalm 61:2). In my own life, I have come to the settled conviction that the pursuit of God leads to intimacy with Him, intimacy leads to trust, trust produces peace, and peace leads to unassailable joy.
In the pages that follow, we will study the precious truth of the fatherhood of God. We will come to the great peaks of theology and behold His sovereignty, unfathomable love, comforting presence, and sufficient grace and power to those who trust in Him. Each chapter concludes with reflection questions based on the truths of Scripture we are examining. I pray these questions and the sections of God's Word provided will help you direct your gaze at God. After all, it's one thing to acknowledge and affirm God's attributes; it's an entirely different thing to behold, consider, and gaze.
I've titled this book Consider the Lilies because Jesus told His anxious followers to "consider the lilies" (Matthew 6:28 NKJV) so that they would more fully understand the power, care, and provision of God. My subtitle, Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God, suggests that the peace of God does not fall into our laps as we sit and wait for it but rather is given by God to those who fix their minds on and fill their hearts with God's matchless and unchanging character.
In this light, peace is not so much something we find but rather something we receive as we gaze at God—which is the essence of faith. Logically, for us to know God's character, He must reveal Himself, and, amazingly, we find God's self-revelation in the Bible. God's Word, therefore, will not merely be the anecdotal sprinkling, but the main substance of this book and of the heart that comes to find true and lasting peace. This image—of the reception of God's peace because of our faith in the revelation of His character—is at the core of this book. Everything written here resides within that single teaching of Jesus.
In that spirit, here is my prayer for you as you begin this book:
The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock. Isaiah 26:3–4
Stay dialed in,
Jonny Ardavanis
