The last sentence stands out, especially when contrasted with Miss Bingley’s speech. Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting, but Miss Bingley’s description of a praiseworthy young woman is all about beauty and charm, with no mention of a God-fearing character.
It’s no different today. Society generally praises and rewards the beautiful, the charming, the entertaining, and those with certain types of education and abilities, while overlooking the more mundane skills and important traits of character that God values. But let’s bring it down to a more personal level. After all, society is made up of individuals; it is shaped by people’s collective attitudes.
So what attitudes and priorities are you contributing to the collective whole? Be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Start by asking the Holy Spirit to adjust your thinking where necessary, bringing it into alignment with God’s values. Pray God would help you excel at what matters most to him, in turn blessing others through you. Then how about helping to shape the younger generation? Instead of praising a child for his/her looks or athletic ability, praise wise choices, kindness to others, hard work, and love of the Lord. Pray for their character development, protected hearts, and that God would provide opportunities for you to speak wisdom and faithful instruction into their impressionable minds.
God’s standards are very different from Miss Bingley’s, as we’ve seen, but there is one point of similarity. Just as Miss Bingley’s list would be difficult for anybody to live up to, so is God’s – not just difficult but impossible. In fact, I’m pretty sure if Lizzy Bennet read Proverbs 31, she would say, “I never saw such a woman.” And she would be right.
Only Jesus Christ fulfilled all God’s requirements perfectly. We fall short, time and time again. But we do not lose hope because God also forgives us again and again. He continues to love us, sanctify us, and to bless us beyond anything we deserve. Knowing this gives us confidence to approach the throne of grace, to pray as today’s petition models for us. God hears our prayers, he pardons the presumption of our requests, and he continues to be merciful.
Let Us Pray
Lord God, you call us to be holy even as you are holy. You call us to live by your standards and not man’s. Free us from the snares of the world, and enable us to live more and more for you alone, so that we may bless others as we reflect your glory in the name of Christ. Amen.
Let Us Praise
Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. (Exodus 15:11-13)
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Sheep and Turkeys
Keep us oh! Heavenly Father from Evil this night.
Jane Austen’s novels possess an idealized, fairy-tale quality that contributes to their charm, giving us an escape from the harshness of real life. Unlike Dickens, for example, in Austen we aren’t faced with children in rags or beggars on every street corner. Very little crime is mentioned either, hardly anything more serious than the poultry thieves of Emma. But even that threatened Mr. Woodhouse’s peace of mind.
Mrs. Weston’s poultry-house was robbed one night of all her turkies – evidently by the ingenuity of man... Pilfering was housebreaking to Mr. Woodhouse’s fears. He was very uneasy; and but for the sense of his son-in-law’s protection, would have been under wretched alarm every night of his life. The strength, resolution, and presence of mind of the Mr. Knightleys, commanded his fullest dependence. While either of them protected him and his, Hartfield was safe. (Emma, chapter 55)
Although Mr. Woodhouse’s fears may seem exaggerated, the danger felt very real to him. The threat of evil hit too close to home for comfort. When he needed protection for him and his, he looked to the ones he could trust completely: the Mr. Knightleys – one his son-in-law already and the other soon to be.
This incident made me wonder who was guarding the poultry houses of Highbury. Hired hands of some kind? Groundskeepers or gamekeepers probably looked in occasionally, but I suspect the landowners trusted mostly to fences and gates – adequate to keep the lesser threat of foxes at bay perhaps, but not to guard against the greater violence and ingenuity of man.
Fortunately when it comes to our eternal safety, we are more like sheep than turkeys. We have not been left to fend for ourselves, at the mercy of thieves and robbers, for we have a full-time guardian who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalms 121). The Lord is our faithful shepherd. With his rod and staff he leads us, guides us, and protects us from evil, even through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalms 23). Jesus speaks of himself as both our shepherd and the gate to the sheepfold in John 10.
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:7-14)
We can picture Jesus as our shepherd easily enough, but the image of him as the gate may need some clarification. When a shepherd had his flock grazing away from home, he might hope to find a cave or rough stone enclosure (one used by generations of shepherds before him) to offer his sheep some protection overnight in the wilderness. The walls of these makeshift sheepfolds might be stout enough, but there were no gates. So the shepherd would lie down for the night across the narrow opening, thereby keeping the sheep within from straying off while at the same time guarding them against any approaching danger. He literally laid down his life to save his sheep, and the only way in or out was through him. (The greater fulfillment of this image, of course, came when Jesus sacrificed his life for us on the cross.)
I had an interesting time comparing these two passages – the one from Emma and this one in John – finding similarities while trying not to push the analogy too far. This lesson seemed most significant: a person must know where to turn when danger threatens.
Mr. Woodhouse didn’t trust to fences or to the inconstant presence of a groundskeeper; he had the sense to depend on the Mr. Knightleys – because of their strength, resolution, and presence of mind, yes, but also for an even more important reason. The Knightleys were completely invested in the same goal. Mr. Woodhouse knew they cared as much about the safety of his family as he did himself, only they were much more capable of ensuring it.
When you are threatened, where do you turn? You may rely on doctors to protect your health, and a security company to safeguard your residence. You may trust that the military, the police, and the fire departments will do their parts. But these measures aren’t foolproof; they can’t protect you completely. These people, no matter how dedicated, are hired hands. They have little personal investment in keeping you safe. And even if they do their jobs perfectly, their protection is temporary, only delaying the inevitable. Death will find every one of us eventually.
Jesus, the good shepherd, is the only one who can and will protect us all the way through life and beyond. He is not only able to save us completely, we can trust him to do so because we belong to him. The one who loves us so much that he laid down his life for us cares more for our eternal security than we can possibly understand. In John 10:27-28, Jesus goes on to say, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”
We don’t live in a Jane Austen novel, and evil – seen or unseen – threatens us on many fronts. So where is the safest place to dwell? With Jesus, our good shepherd, listening to his voice and c
losely following him.
Let Us Pray
Father God, on our own we are as helpless as sheep among wolves. How gracious you are to send us Jesus to shepherd us through this life and into your presence after death! Give us the sense to listen to his guiding voice and carefully obey. In his name we pray. Amen.
Let Us Praise
LORD, YOU have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalms 90:1-2)
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Blessed Rest
Bring us in safety to the beginning of another day & grant that we may rise again with every serious & religious feeling which now directs us.
“Things will look brighter in the morning. Just you wait and see.” We’ve probably all been given this sage advice at a dark moment in our lives. And the best part is that it’s usually true. Circumstances haven’t changed while we slept, but somehow, with the brain and body rested, we’re more able to cope, to face the problem with a degree of optimism.
That’s what happened to Emma after she discovered her mistake about Mr. Elton – that he fancied her and not her friend Harriet. She sternly berated herself for being so foolish as to persuade Harriet to care for him, filling her head with unrealistic expectations. Now the truth of how wrong she had been had come to light, and Emma was mortified – for her error, but especially for the pain it would surely occasion her friend.
The distressing explanation she had to make to Harriet, and all that poor Harriet would be suffering… were enough to occupy her with most unmirthful reflections some time longer, and she went to bed at last with nothing settled but the conviction of her having blundered most dreadfully. To youth and natural cheerfulness like Emma’s, though under temporary gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of spirits… Emma got up on the morrow more disposed for comfort than she had gone to bed, more ready to see alleviations of the evil before her, and to depend on getting tolerably out of it. It was a great consolation that Mr. Elton should not be really in love with her, or so particularly amiable as to make it shocking to disappoint him – that Harriet’s nature should not be of that superior sort in which the feelings are most acute and retentive – and that there could be no necessity for anybody’s knowing what had passed except the three principals… These were very cheering thoughts; and the sight of a great deal of snow on the ground did her further service, for any thing was welcome that might justify their all three being quite asunder at present. (Emma, chapter 16)
At first I was a little puzzled by today’s petition. Now, however, I think I understand Jane Austen’s prayer that we may rise with every serious and religious feeling which now directs us, because there is a real danger that in this kind of situation we won’t. And the clue comes from Emma herself. Did you notice that Emma is full of remorse and miserable guilt when she retires to bed, but she’s not only more hopeful in the morning (a good thing), she’s also less repentant. She seems to be convincing herself that the mischief she made wasn’t really so bad, and besides, nobody will find out about it anyway.
Still, how good God is to give us rest! As the one who created us, he knows the feebleness of our human constitutions. He knows that we grow weary physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. So he scheduled rest into the lives of his people from the beginning – that we should sleep every night and have a Sabbath day of rest every week (Exodus 23:12). He modeled the concept for us by resting on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:2). God even decreed that the land itself should have a well-earned rest from cultivation (Leviticus 25:4).
What does rest mean to you? A day off from chores and a good night’s sleep? Two weeks basking on a tropical beach? When my husband first retired, he jokingly claimed it meant he could now spend his time doing whatever he wanted. Yes, God does sometimes bless us with wonderful vacations and other forms of enjoyable rest and recreation, but we certainly never “retire” from working for the Lord. Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mathew 11:28-30)
We don’t find rest by dulling our consciences, as Emma did. We don’t find rest by shrugging off our responsibilities and indulging ourselves. We find true rest by taking on Jesus’ yoke. He is stronger and helps us carry our burdens if we will but walk in sync with him rather than insisting on going our own way.
Again it comes back to God, as our creator, knowing us and our needs better than we know ourselves. We were designed to live in fellowship with him, and he knows that in him we will find our greatest fulfillment as well as our best refreshment. No substitutes will do. This line from St. Augustine’s confession expresses the idea perfectly: Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.
So next time you are weary, instead of plotting how to get away from it all, try taking a refreshment break with God – a weekend retreat, a couple of hours on Sunday, or even just a few minutes of quiet time with him. As it says in Psalms 34: 8, Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Let Us Pray
Father God, you know us and you know what we need. How good you are to give us rest at the proper times – temporary rest from our earthly struggles, and especially the permanent rest of heart and soul found only in you. May we never see that rest as an excuse to become lazy or complacent, but as your gracious provision so that we can continue walking, yoked with Jesus. It is in his saving name that we pray. Amen.
Let Us Praise
I WILL exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalms 30: 1-5)
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Seeing Truth
May thy mercy be extended over all Mankind, bringing the Ignorant to the knowledge of thy Truth, awakening the Impenitent, touching the Hardened.
This is a prayer for the unsaved, asking that in his mercy God would open unseeing eyes to the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ, softening and convicting hardened hearts. Some unbelievers are willfully so, and others are ignorant or have been deceived. For most, it’s probably a combination, exploited by the enemy.
Here, I think of Elizabeth Bennet and her original prejudice against Mr. Darcy, which was the result of the same combination: willfulness, ignorance, and deception. When Darcy became aware of this at the disastrous first proposal, he took measures to set the record straight.
Be not alarmed, Madam, on receiving this letter, by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments, or renewal of those offers which were last night so disgusting to you. I write without any intention of paining you, or humbling myself, by dwelling on wishes, which, for the happiness of both, cannot be too soon forgotten; and the effort which the formation, and the perusal of this letter must occasion, should have been spared had not my character required it to be written and read. You must, therefore pardon the freedom with which I demand your attention; your feelings, I know, will bestow it unwillingly, but I demand it of your justice... (Pride and Prejudice, chapter 35)
With his letter, Darcy sought to correct Elizabeth’s understanding. But why bother? He had no illusions of her falling in love with him because of it, and he clearly states he has no plans of renewing his offer to her. No, it was in defense of his character and in the interest of justice that he wrote and demanded her attention. If he never saw her again, he intended that she should at least know the truth. So he went on to explain his actions
in the one offense charged to him and to refute the other charge completely.
Likewise, God has been accused of lots of things he hasn’t done. His actions are constantly misunderstood, often willfully. There is widespread ignorance in the world of his Word and character. And the devil, the father of lies (John 8:44), is always busy carrying on his campaign of deception.
Aren’t you sometimes frustrated that God doesn’t demand everybody’s attention, show himself for who he really is, and set the record straight, like Darcy did? After all, if anybody has the right to speak out based on character, it is our holy and awesome God. Oh, wait; God has made himself known.
THE HEAVENS declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. (Psalms 19:1-3)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
…since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20)
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