Hebrews 6:11-12 “We
want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you
hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to
imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been
promised.”
Our faith in the
crucified and ascended Christ has to be demonstrated in the way we live out our
Christianity and without putting our faith into practice, well, we have
NOTHING. It does not matter how good we feel about what we think we have,
because if there is no faith, there is no substance, no God, no heaven and no
nothing. Yet, faith is not something
that we conjure up out of the blue. It is not like living out some disjointed
notion about God as we go on our merry way doing what feels right. If we take
the Israelites in the wilderness for a moment we can vividly see that they
never understood what faith meant and they never understood how important it
was to apply it in their daily walk either. They were not in the mood to learn
and they were too busy thinking about what’s in it for them. In their case, the
need to possess the land of Canaan
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I am not saying that
about the Israelites because I want to criticize them, it is there in black and
white in the Bible for us to see that at any moment in our lives we could be
like one of them. In fact, I had someone else’s in mind to give you as an
example for this post, until I was caught in the same dilemma up until two days
ago. I was lying down in bed while in pain with a cold that does not want to
let go and I got to thinking about my life. Would you believe while I was in
that frame of mind, all that I could see was how lousy my life is and how God
is putting me through unnecessary hoops. All of the sudden I felt like a
combination of job when he was lamenting and I also was in a winning mood like
the Israelites in the wilderness. I had so much pain within because I felt God
could be a little bit more merciful since I passed all the numerous trials He
put me through. Then all of the sudden I realized as I was in bed crying
because I felt so bad for myself, that my thoughts toward God were not at all
flattering.
I stopped myself
right there. Yes I was still in pain and I felt the only way I could feel better
about myself is if I could bash God and let Him have it. But, I also knew
within me, that's going onto a slippery slope extremely dangerous and I am
opening a door to Satan that I might not be able to close behind me so easily.
So, I grabbed onto all the strength that I could muster to stop and think about
God’s word. Honestly, even though I
stopped myself from being bashful and critical about God, but, I was not in the
mood to hear those verses about how good and faithful He is. These things are
knowledge that I possessed already and they are part of my very fibber that
makes me who I am in Him which is a holy child of God living a life of intimacy
and love with Him.
When I was living
this deplorable moment, I was not LIVING in the Spirit. When we allow ourselves
to live in the flesh for a moment, it can be devastating and unlike David who
gave in, to the point where he murdered Uriah
the Hittite in an effort to cover up his sin we have to take a page from
his book and stop when we realize what we are about to do. Don’t give into it,
and do not even bother to continue your train of thoughts. In David’s case the
minute he kept looking at Bathsheba bathing from his balcony he opened the door
for Satan to enter.
It is strange to
describe myself as a loving child of God, yet having a mind capable of thinking
the worse thoughts about Him. That is because in our nature, there is nothing
good in us. I knew I had to leave this mindset behind me and go back to what I
knew of His word found in Job chapter 38 and 39. When you look at these two
chapters you can summarize it in few words, God basically said to Job those
seven words “who the heck you think you are?” Remember how much He bragged
about Job and what kind of man he was (Job 1: 8. If you play close attention to
this verse you will also see that God directed Satan’s heart onto Job. This
shows you that no matter how far we travel with God, we cannot escape Satan in
tempting us to get us in the gutter with Him.
As I thought about
those words God said to Job in chapters 38 & 39, I was put in my place and
learned again that it is not my place to question God’s way. If He feels the
needs to put ten thousand obstacles in my path and frustrate every plan that I
have, while putting only 10 obstacles in any other Christian’s path instead of
thousands like me, then it must be the right thing for His own purpose. Believe
me when I tell you that I felt awful toward God afterwards, just for knowing
that I can hurt Him in this manner.
The writer of Hebrews
tells us we cannot afford to become lazy and we have to show diligence. What do
you think that is? Because first of all we are on a journey and God arranged it
in a way that we can only live this life of faith as long as we hang onto Him
and recognize that apart from Him we can do nothing. He wants us to learn to
live a life dependent completely on Him so that we can find the strength and
grace needed to continue the journey. What I shared with you above, about my
sin is something that could happen to anyone of us, especially when you are living
a life of one distress after another and you have no idea when enough is enough
for God.
I am able to continue
what seems like a God forsaken life, because I learned to live and walk in the
Spirit instead of walking after the flesh. I rest the whole weight of my life
and situation on Him. I can do that, not because I am gullible or because of
some vague idea of faith I muster on my own. I know He is real, I know His
promises are true and His word calls for an obedience to trust and obey that
equate to faith. His word says that the
just shall live by faith and faith is always tested by God. While there is pain
in watching the residue of my life now, I know I cannot shrink back. I keep
going because His word expects me to submit to His will for me through any kind
of difficulties and however long He chooses the difficulties should last.
I shared my
experience with you because I share the good and the bad. Secondly, God showed
me something today. Times like the one I experienced two days ago, instead of
dealing with my pain, I would have gone to my ungodly friend and take a break
from God for a few hours, but this time I did not have the luxury. I also
shared because what happened to me and the way I dealt with it to avoid
backsliding even for a few days is also an example of what God calls endurance
through faith exercised as I made use of my daily portion of grace in Him.
The Christian life is
a life where we have to continue believing till the end. John 3:36 did not say He who BEILEVED in past tense. It is rather
whoever believes and continues to believe day in day out.
John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath
remains on them.”
