I know where you are right now. Alone
and angry and frustrated. You're sitting in the dark as you rail
against yourself. “Again.” You ask yourself. “Why have I done
this again?” For the hundredth time you find yourself in the
aftermath of sin, of sin you chose to do for reasons that have now
evaporated. I know this because I've been there, we all have. The
life of a Christian is not one of perfection and sadly we often find
ourselves repeating the same bad choices we swore never to make
again.
The first thing I'll say is this: Use
it. Sin won't stop at merely getting you to choose the 'flesh'. It
will use your grief to drive you further from God. Grief and guilt are
unusual. When used properly they can keep us humble, drive us to do
better, and cause us to draw closer to God. Often though, our guilt
makes us unwilling to approach the perfect God and can actually push
us to further sin. It's important to remember that we are
undeserving of His grace and deserving of His punishment, but we
can't focus on that. We have to keep that fact in mind so that it
informs the wonder and awe we experience from the knowledge of what
He has done for us. That the Holy God of the universe would deign to
save such as us shouldn't make us cower into the dirt, it should have
us shouting for joy and praise! On the flip side, we must examine
our sins and our behaviors and our history to be sure that the
overall pattern is growth not simply a lack of freedom from sin. God
has given us freedom, we don't -have- to sin, but we will. Not until
glory will we be totally free. Use it, don't let your guilt simply
sit there. Go to God and repent, ask for His help and He will be
there with you.
Furthermore, remember that you never
deserved your salvation in the first place. I know that when I sin,
when I have to repent of my actions, one of the first things that
comes to my mind is the question “why on earth would God have saved
me?” It's helpful to remember that God didn't save you because of
anything within 'you'. To put it bluntly, He saved you because He
chose to. That's it and we may never understand the reasons. We
were utterly unworthy of salvation in the first place so we can't
become less worthy than that. God saw all of your sin, all of it,
from the time that He made time itself. He knew exactly what He was
getting into when He saved you. There are no surprises, there are
no regrets, and there is nothing that will cause Him to revoke that
which He has given. If you're saved, if you really are, then know
that you will never fall fully away. You will always return, God
will always be calling you back or even dragging you back.
So don't give up. Use your guilt and
your mistakes. Take what the enemy want's to use to destroy you and
give it to God so that He can build you up instead. Repent and move
on from that dark room you find yourself in. Keep your eyes on the
bright horizon and keep walking, keep fighting for every step and
when you fall, get back up.
How do we deal with suffering? How can
we understand the reasoning behind the hard times, or the necessity
of struggle? The question is so often asked; “Why do bad things
happen to good people?” As we journey through this life we often
find more trouble than peace and it so frequently leads people
astray. Is there any way to cope with it? The problem of pain is a
complex issue, one not solved with a single paper or a pithy phrase,
but we can spend some time today on a few hope-filled truths.
Probably the most harsh answer to the
issue of suffering, to the question of 'why do bad things happen to
good people is this: they don't. Bad things do not happen to good
people, bad things happen to bad people and we are all bad people.
This is yet another instance of how having your theology straight
affects your understanding of other things. The Bible clearly
teaches us that we as a race are fallen from birth and are enemies of
God by our very nature. As soon as we have the ability to choose we
choose sin, we desire after it, we want to rebel. So as I said the
harsh answer to the problem of pain is that we all deserve everything
we get. From the lost job to the flooded streets to the death of a
loved one to the death of ourselves; everything is the end result of
a fallen world brought about by our sin. No one is innocent,
everyone is guilty, we have no right to complain.
That being said there are more
comforting explanations for struggle. Growth for example. Going
back to my previous statement, having a systematic theology helps you
to understand the questions that arise in life. When we understand
the nature of God (as much as we can as finite, fallen creatures) and
the plan He has for us, we see that ultimately God is not worrying so
much about our 'happiness' as He is our 'holiness.'
“but
as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct..”
(1
Peter 1:15)
“...just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love..”
(Ephesians
1:4)
It's
not that the Lord doesn't care about our happiness it's that He
understands the truth that we will not be happy until we are in Him!
True joy will come not from constant pleasure, not from an easy life,
not from myriad possessions but from a closeness to God! Even in the
most dire of situations, in the darkest of places, we can have joy!
Maybe not shouting from the rooftops and dancing in the streets joy,
but the joy of lasting peace and trust in the God who guides our step
and directs everything that happens. And we can trust Him, because
He knows what we don't. He knows that the man in the pew behind you
won't be made more holy by getting that new job, but that being
unemployed for a few more months will teach Him to rely on God for
his every need. That women praying at the steps of the stage won't
become more like Jesus in some particular way unless her son rebels
against God for another year; and her son won't learn to love God
above himself unless he see's just what sin he is capable of. We
wouldn't choose that path, we wouldn't choose these lessons but God
knows what we need and since He cares more for our holiness than our
'happiness' He will rain fire down on the life that wants rain!
“But
may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you.”
(1
Peter 5:10)
“In
your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of
shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to
you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he
disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges." Endure your
trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what
"son" is there whom his father does not discipline? If you
are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons
but bastards. Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to
discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all
the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a
short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit,
in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline
seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the
peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.”
(Hebrews
12:4-11)
Have
you ever compared the sorrows of this life to the suffering of Jesus
on the cross? Has anything you've gone through been like that? Has
it even been close to even the physical pain of His death? I doubt
that it has and I know that nothing you or I or anyone has ever gone
through is even comparable to the suffering He endured under the full
wrath of God against our sin! Our pain in this life is but a shadow
of death. A specter of the true punishment we deserve. God is using
these 'minor' pains to tell us something. If this is what earthly
pain looks like, if this what temporary physical suffering feels like
how horrible must an eternity in Hell be! If this is what it feels
like to endure the wrath of men, how must Jesus have felt under the
wrath of almighty God! God allows the shadow of death to cross over
us in part so we can appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus and so we can
run to Him for salvation. He allows it so that we would flee in
terror to Him.
Finally,
as Christians, we suffer because we are not of this world. There is
a promise in the New Testament that cannot be missed, Christ was
hated by the world and so we will be hated as well. If we seek to
live this life as God would have us live we will rub people the wrong
way. If we show them the holiness of God it will point out how
unholy they are, if we show them that their sins can be forgiven it
will force them to look at the sins they have hidden or denied. We
may not live a life of constant persecution but it will come from
someone in some form.
“Yes,
and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution.”
(2
Timothy 3:12)
I
know that this isn't every reason, but it's a start. Regardless of
the hows and the whys we as the people of God can find comfort in
Him. He is our rock and our cornerstone, our redeemer, brother, and
friend. He will hold us and keep us safe even in the midst of
trials. We may not understand, but that is when we have to trust Him
because He does know what is best. Pray for peace and comfort from
Him, pray for those you see in trouble around you and remember that
you may be the one that God would use to help them. When all the
world is falling apart, God will always stand sure; and when everyone
has left you, He'll be there.
