Z
Zephyr
Guest
I wrote this series in 2009, I think. This came out of several years of deep struggle and growth...
Faith In Times Of trouble Part 2
When I first started out as a Christian, I was really a mess, and I knew it. As I read my Bible, and looked at the difference between how I was thinking and how God was thinking, I knew there were a lot of changes I needed to make. I was OK with that, though, since nothing else I had tried over the years had been working, and the very same sort of things I had been trying all my friends had tried too, and I have a lot of dead friends. Too Many…
I found out early that there were a lot of Christian shows on TV, and it was nice to listen to that sort of thing in my own home. Some of them made more sense than others, but one thing they all seemed to have in common was this thing about how much God wanted to give us all wonderful things, especially money. Oh yea, and most of them seemed to think that God just wanted more than anything to see us all married too -- happily married at that! Thanks to those nice TV preachers, I went through a time that lasted a couple of years where I looked carefully at the single men in church and waited eagerly for the job of my dreams to drop out of the sky. Well -- it didn’t exactly work that way. I’m still single, and I am still stuck in a dead-end job. I still have to be very careful with money if I want to make ends meet. I don’t date either. Now I can only think of two reasons why my life is like this, either God doesn’t care, or there’s something wrong with what those nice people on TV are saying. Now I don’t exactly think they’re all lying; I know plenty of Christians who have nice marriages and good jobs.
On the other hand, thanks to David Wilkerson, a preacher who doesn’t have a TV show, but he does have a fine news letter, there is no doubt in my mind that I’m not the only Christian who ever had problems. Rev. Wilkerson wasn’t my only witness either; the Lord saw to it very early on that I knew that there are people in other countries who are tortured, imprisoned and murdered for refusing to deny Jesus Christ. I didn’t know that. I was deeply shocked. There was one picture that really stands in my mind, of a lovely young woman from Afghanistan who had acid thrown in her face; one side of her face was just ruined, yet she had the most beautiful happy smile I have ever seen on anyone. Then there is the Bible itself. Most of the Psalms speak of actually begging God for help because of overwhelming trouble. Not just David, either, but others as well.
It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, to fully understand that God does love us very deeply, but that doesn’t mean that we just get everything the easy way. I have really had to fight to get that through my head. To be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure that most Christians don’t understand this either, and that misunderstanding is causing a lot of trouble in the American churches. I think its why we see so many weird stories about churches that have fallen into all sorts of false teaching. Keeping your faith intact when you’re not getting what you honestly need takes a lot of patience and a lot of determination. It is so very difficult to trust in God because the Bible says you should, when your life says something else entirely. Some pastors have taught that just because you cannot see what you are trusting God for doesn’t mean you can’t have it. I don’t think that’s quite as wrong as some people think it is, but I do think its very important to be able to take a “No” from God Himself, if that’s His final answer. Why? Because God has needs too. I know that Scripture says that we don’t have anything that God doesn’t already have, but the one thing God lets Himself need from us is our trust. He needs that trust to show for other people, both to unbelievers and Christians, when we have nothing but Faith to hang on to. Why? The answer if found in Job 2:1-8
I have been known to literally hang onto those words for dear life. God was actually bragging about Job’s faithfulness. God was bragging about Job, not because Job was being faithful because of everything going right, but because God knew Job’s heart and mind well enough to be confident that when everything went wrong, horribly wrong, Job would still be faithful. And he was. Some day, I am going to give dear Job the biggest hug…
In Christ, Z
Faith In Times Of trouble Part 2
When I first started out as a Christian, I was really a mess, and I knew it. As I read my Bible, and looked at the difference between how I was thinking and how God was thinking, I knew there were a lot of changes I needed to make. I was OK with that, though, since nothing else I had tried over the years had been working, and the very same sort of things I had been trying all my friends had tried too, and I have a lot of dead friends. Too Many…
I found out early that there were a lot of Christian shows on TV, and it was nice to listen to that sort of thing in my own home. Some of them made more sense than others, but one thing they all seemed to have in common was this thing about how much God wanted to give us all wonderful things, especially money. Oh yea, and most of them seemed to think that God just wanted more than anything to see us all married too -- happily married at that! Thanks to those nice TV preachers, I went through a time that lasted a couple of years where I looked carefully at the single men in church and waited eagerly for the job of my dreams to drop out of the sky. Well -- it didn’t exactly work that way. I’m still single, and I am still stuck in a dead-end job. I still have to be very careful with money if I want to make ends meet. I don’t date either. Now I can only think of two reasons why my life is like this, either God doesn’t care, or there’s something wrong with what those nice people on TV are saying. Now I don’t exactly think they’re all lying; I know plenty of Christians who have nice marriages and good jobs.
On the other hand, thanks to David Wilkerson, a preacher who doesn’t have a TV show, but he does have a fine news letter, there is no doubt in my mind that I’m not the only Christian who ever had problems. Rev. Wilkerson wasn’t my only witness either; the Lord saw to it very early on that I knew that there are people in other countries who are tortured, imprisoned and murdered for refusing to deny Jesus Christ. I didn’t know that. I was deeply shocked. There was one picture that really stands in my mind, of a lovely young woman from Afghanistan who had acid thrown in her face; one side of her face was just ruined, yet she had the most beautiful happy smile I have ever seen on anyone. Then there is the Bible itself. Most of the Psalms speak of actually begging God for help because of overwhelming trouble. Not just David, either, but others as well.
It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, to fully understand that God does love us very deeply, but that doesn’t mean that we just get everything the easy way. I have really had to fight to get that through my head. To be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure that most Christians don’t understand this either, and that misunderstanding is causing a lot of trouble in the American churches. I think its why we see so many weird stories about churches that have fallen into all sorts of false teaching. Keeping your faith intact when you’re not getting what you honestly need takes a lot of patience and a lot of determination. It is so very difficult to trust in God because the Bible says you should, when your life says something else entirely. Some pastors have taught that just because you cannot see what you are trusting God for doesn’t mean you can’t have it. I don’t think that’s quite as wrong as some people think it is, but I do think its very important to be able to take a “No” from God Himself, if that’s His final answer. Why? Because God has needs too. I know that Scripture says that we don’t have anything that God doesn’t already have, but the one thing God lets Himself need from us is our trust. He needs that trust to show for other people, both to unbelievers and Christians, when we have nothing but Faith to hang on to. Why? The answer if found in Job 2:1-8
I have been known to literally hang onto those words for dear life. God was actually bragging about Job’s faithfulness. God was bragging about Job, not because Job was being faithful because of everything going right, but because God knew Job’s heart and mind well enough to be confident that when everything went wrong, horribly wrong, Job would still be faithful. And he was. Some day, I am going to give dear Job the biggest hug…
In Christ, Z
