As we walk through life often we will find ourselves getting pummeled by all manner of sharp objects and I’ve realized that the problem is not in the sharp objects, rather it’s in our reaction. I’ve known that for awhile but today I had a cool thought that helped put things into better light. When something bad happens what are the general questions or thoughts that we have? When a friend dies? When a family splits up? When parents don’t know how to parent? When siblings don’t know how to love? When boys take advantage of girls? When girls are overly irrational and ruin a good friendship? When a beautiful deer has its life snuffed out by oncoming traffic? When these and other situations happen what are the questions that we struggle with?
How is this fair?
How is this helpful?
How can God ask me to put up with this when it not my fault?
What does God expect me to do?
Now let us place ourselves in the position of Jesus Christ on the cross and think those same thoughts and ask those same questions.
How is this fair. It is not fair yet it will enable millions to be saved
How is this helpful? It is not now but it will be when I rise again
How can God ask me to put up with this when it not my fault? Because I love other people and so will pay for their faults.
What does God expect me to do? To love Him as He loved me.
I think that we far to often get caught up in the emotions of a situation and are unwilling or unable to step outside of our emotions and say “Father God, regardless of how I feel, or what I want, my hearts desire is that not my will but your will be done” We forget that the more ashes their are the more glorious a Phoenix will rise from them. Can you imagine a more horrible, unfair, dark, evil, horrendous deed then the death of the son of God? Can you imagine the party that the demons had when Jesus breathed his last? Can you imagine the shock and despair of the angels who watched their “all powerful” Lord fall victim to the whims of His own creation?
Jesus however put things into perspective and knew where his loyalties lay. He endured the ultimate unfair situation and the ultimate evil NOT because he had some special supernatural gift which helped Him but because he had spent his entire thirty year lifetime preparing for that moment. Every moment of every day he was getting ready for that test. He was not lazy in pursuing God because He knew that one day God would call Him to be the example of Christianity for all the world. The challenge stands for us as well because God calls us daily to represent Christianity to the world, so will we shame God and Christianity or will we stand strong and bring glory? Will we pursue God when life is easy so that in the hard times we will be examples of holiness as Jesus was or will be like the hypocrites who God spits out of his mouth because we are foul to Him?
I praise God that He set the example for us, He commands us to do hard things but He never asks us to feel something which He did not feel Himself.
If Jesus didn't feel how do you explain the blood sweating? And if we weren't meant to be emotional then why did God create us with them?
ReplyDeletebut I never said that. I didn't say Jesus never felt and I didn't say we weren't supposed to feel. What I said or what I meant to say and maybe this didn't come across is that, "sometimes our feelings tell us to do the opposite thing of what we are supposed to so, so the point is that regardless of how we feel our actions should still be bringing glory to God."
ReplyDeleteThank you Caleb, I needed to hear that today.
ReplyDeleteOh, so it's the girls that ruin beautiful friendships, those girls...:)
~Lady Amy~
Amen to that, Caleb
ReplyDelete