I think there are many times in my life that I have felt that "I don't deserve the bad things that are happening in my life." or That "I deserve better than this." That mentality makes me very discontented because you see, the truth of the matter is I don't deserve to go to Heaven, but yet because I accepted Jesus into my heart to save me, I AM going to Heaven. What I DO deserve is to live a life of damnation in the pit of Hell because I am a sinner. I sin without knowing it even. I sin by the thoughts I have about others when I am judging them ( I justify this to myself by saying I am just speaking the truth, but really it is SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS and wrongful JUDGING), or the way I talk about someone or something that is not maybe quite edifying to their character. (This is GOSSIP but I justify it as just letting someone know I have a prayer request, so I look all Holy or something.) I sin when I fib to make myself look better. (I justify this as I am just stretching the truth a little, not telling LIES.) Oh, yeah, another one that is huge for me is having DISCONTENT in my current circumstances and COVETING what others have. There are so many more I could mention and so many more things I do wrong, but my point is, no matter how hard I try , to become the reformed GOOD CHRISTIAN, I still mess up on a daily, often minutely basis. I am a SINNER, and only by the grace of God am I even allowed to some day set foot through those pearly gates. As for now, in this world, I need to remember that I am not exempt from hardships and trials and I have to just fight the battle with my armor of God on.
I came across a teaching a few months back taken from Walk in the Word - What if I Refuse this Trial? (Job 23:10) For some reason, when something doesn't go as planned for me in my life, I get all anxious and want to know the end result NOW. I will say patience is a virtue that I do NOT have within my possession.
Some of the things that I outlined while listening to this particular sermon series I will hit on below. Hopefully this will benefit someone out there the way it helped me. Hopefully reading and writing this blog entry will once again remind me why things are not always easy and yet we have to stay the course and keep our eye on the goal. . . HEAVEN!!!
I. What if I refuse this trial? (Hebrews 12) I always think this, when things get hard, I want to run away and refuse the trial. Like Jonah ran from God and then God found him, so has God done that for me to. I have learned it is scarier to run from a trial if it is God Ordained than to hang out in a life of luxury that is not in God's will and plan for my life. With God, I can do anything
a. God allows a painful circumstance to come into my life so he can turn me into Gold This one struck me a little bit hard. I always blamed Satan for all the trials in my life and all the hardships, but what if God really does allow us to go through painful circumstances for the soul purpose of turning us into Gold? For me, a new concept. I used to pray the trials out of my life, or at least try to. What if I should welcome them to a certain extent, trusting I will be stronger for them?
b. Embrace that God is the source of this trial, he has chosen it for you
i. He is not abandoning us, he is moving into our lives
ii. God allowed it to come into our lives
iii. He knows the way that I take and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
c. Trials are like God’s discipline us as his children. Wow, this one hit me. I often give my children a command and they chose to disobey or just do it their way. I know the end result may be painful but I can also see the lesson they will learn from it, where as if I just always made choices for them, they would never really grow and learn. They may never be the confidant and successful person that I desire for them to be, so sometimes, as a parent, I have to step back and allow them to hurt and harder yet, I have to discipline them. I know in the end it will make them stronger and they will grow.
i. We get the blessing if we are trained by it
ii. I do believe God cries with us when we hurt, but he may not actually be crying over what really is happening because he sees the big picture and realizes that we are going to benefit in the long run. We will be blessed for accepting the discipline and instead of getting angry at the source of discipline, we just might anticipate the end result, trusting that GOD always has our best interest in mind and loves us.
d. Trials can lead to discouragement – so lift your drooping hands & straighten your weak knees
i. What if we are in denial
1. I have been in denial alot in my life when a trial hits. I think, "well, God loves me and I am a GOOD CHRISTIAN so He is not gonna let anything bad happen to me, RIGHT?" WRONG. sometimes it happens to be the exact opposite. First of all, I need to get rid of feeling as though I am entitled to a good life and feeling as though GOD owes me anything. It just isn't true. And as for the whole GOOD CHRISTIAN thing, well, that is Self Righteousness, once again and I need to recognize and get rid of those thoughts right away.
ii. What if we are into finger pointing
iii. What if we are into blame shifting
1. There is a problem but it is not because of me, it is because of others around me.
e. Discouragement leads to dislocation.
i. The angle creates the injury – the pressure is still on
1. Submit to God when under pressure and he will help you to stand under the pressure. I struggle with submitting to God's Will for my life sometimes, because the desires I have for my own life are such deep and strong desires.
a. If you try and get out from under the pressure, combined with the angle of the pressure and you are trying to get out, you will be dislocated. Dislocation is very serious – God wants to heal the limp
1. If you resist the trial, or pressure – it lasts much longer. This is true in a lot of ways. I have found for me, that the very things I hate, I continue to be put back into similar situations with the same result. At one point in my life, as I was throwing a "spiritual tantrum" and yelling at God for always allowing these HORRIBLE things to happen in my life, my mom looked at me and kindly stated, "Michelle, maybe if you would strop throwing a tantrum and figure out and learn what it is God is trying to teach you, then maybe you wouldn't keep ending up back in this same situation." Wisely said mama. I think it was at that point that I submitted to the trial in my life at that time and God used it to change my life. He is faithful in that way too. I do believe though that He kept allowing me to be placed in the same situation in different ways, until I submitted to what he had to teach me.
f. Strive for holiness
i. Most people don’t know what holiness is
1. If we had a little bit of it, we would understand it. It is putting behind us all the ways of the world and you get into the soul satisfying saturating presence of God in your life.
2. Without holiness we will never see the Lord
ii. When you get more holiness, you want more holiness. When you get a taste of what it is, you can't stop at just a little bit. God is going for more holiness in us when he uses trials. This is something I needed reminded of again.
g. Dislocation leads to bitterness
i. Get the trial and still refuse to embrace or accept it. I do this often. I am currently doing this now. I am told or made aware of a trial I am facing and then I want to run away and just get mad. I don't want to face it. I want to refuse and not embrace it. I don't want to be TRAINED by it which in turn means I won't obtain the Grace Of God through it.
i. I need to Help others not to fail to obtain the Grace of God
1. Fallen short of the Grace of God. Instead of submitting to the trial, you resist and rebel then refusing the trial.
2. Now you are failing to obtain the Grace of God, whether it be by white knuckling it or just choosing to not walk with God. Maybe this entails not searching for HIM in every situation or for his wisdom and knowledge. Here is one I am really guilty of most often, NOT digging in His word to get his take on things. He gave me the Bible as a guide through his life and I forget to get it out. I should use My Bible as often as I use the GPS. HMMM.
3. Just hanging on to get through. Wow this one is huge. How often do I chose to just hang on waiting for the terrible RIDE to get over, only to find out that I learned nothing and it was just extremely draining. I am always hanging on by the end of the rope or something, instead of diving into the trial to learn what I need to learn sooner, so I can get through the trying times.
4. another way to help others is by encouraging them and not allowing their trial to lead them to discouragement. I have a hard time with this for myself, let alone helping others, but it is what we are to do as friends and fellow believers.
ii. Bitterness (this is a biggie)
1. I hear what word of God says, but I feel I will be safe though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. Yup, I have said this over some trials in my life. I hate the pain and yet I continue to follow my own stubborn ways. Makes the process a lot harder. Like when you were a kid and going to get smacked and your parents tell you not to put your hands back there. You do anyway, cause you are trying to SAVE your butt and then SMACK, now your hands and butt are both hurt. Hard lesson to learn but stubbornness is not worth the consequences. Another big one is "Don’t ask me to find a placed of joy about this, I will Never get over this." Yeah, this one speaks directly to me also.
2. I won’t let God change me.
3. Root of bitterness -
a. Clouds and distorts the way you see everything
b. Roots don’t stay roots for long – they spring up and turn into a tree. Once they are big trees they are so much harder to get rid of. . .you need alot more maintenance too.
I know this is long but I am wrapping it up. . . .so our attitude is huge when we are facing trials that are placed in our lives. Do we embrace them and allow them to change us and turn us into a shiny piece of Gold for God? or do we allow bitterness and hatred and our attitudes toward our trial take over and cause us more trouble down the road? I know as for me, I don't want to refuse the trials God has given me or placed in my life. I want to grow through them and learn from them so I can come out on the other side victorious. Anyone with me on this?
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