When we face the difficulties of life, as every person will, we may find it
hard to really believe that God cares much about us. If we are prone to
feel sorry for ourselves, or to carry a load of guilt, we may become fully
convinced that God is only out to get us in some bad way.
God is not about that sort of thing, however.
Well, I suppose He actually is, in some ways.
In my studies of the both the Old Testament and the New, I have seen that
sometimes the Lord really is out to get our attention. There are many
historical examples in the ancient Hebrew (OT) Scriptures of God's
determination to prove guilt when guilt is due. The many "judgments" He
describes in both the Law and the prophets are aimed at proving guilt when
a
person or nation has gone wrong.
Let's face it, we all go wrong. So there is no value in wasting a lot of
time denying guilt when we know we have made wrong choices. The best
thing
to do when worthless feelings rise up, or when we have said or done
something for the wrong reasons, is to admit it and move on We can never
grow much spiritually until we are ready to learn from our mistakes and
bad
choices.
Jesus addresses the same problem in the Gospel accounts of His ministry.
To
those who know they are sinners, He always speaks kindly, assuring them of
forgiveness. But to religious hypocrites He speaks sharply, deliberately
pointing out their sins and offenses toward God. Once a person owns up to
their sins, looking for a way to get back on the right path, the Lord only
works to help them up. But when a person chooses to hide from the truth,
the Lord continues turning up the heat.
The Lord Jesus so enraged many of the religious leaders of His day that
they
had Him put to death. We might see this as some kind of failure on God's
part. But we need to keep reading. In the book of Acts we see that many
of
the people in Jerusalem, including priests and even Pharisees, eventually
come around to embrace the message and the person of Jesus Christ (see
chapter 15, for just one example).
God is determined to bring us to salvation, to a knowledge of the truth,
and
to forgiveness of sin. He is not weak or timid in His work of grace. He
will eventually have His way with every human soul.
Yes, some of us die for lack of wisdom. That is, we never get the basic
lessons God wants us to learn. These are critical truths about our need
of
God's love and forgiveness. If we spend our lives ignoring God's voice,
we
will likely endure much unhappiness for our stubbornness.
But even the righteous suffer, as did Jesus and many a faithful prophet of
old. Life in this world is seldom a bed of roses for anyone. Some may
seem
to "have it made," cruising through life with no worries. But we cannot
see
into their minds and hearts. We do not know what their lives are really
like.
One im****tant thing we all need to understand: God does love us and care
about the difficulties we face. He may intervene, taking away some of our
troubles. He may not. And He may also be holding back some terrible
things that we will never even know about. We simply don't know (or want
to
know) just how much worse things could be.
Until Jesus returns to this earth, people will all continue to die. We
will
die, too, just as everyone who does not know the Lord. It is possible
that
we may still be alive when Jesus returns. If so, then we may escape the
natural death awaiting every human being. Otherwise, we are all headed
for
the grave, just as the Scripture says: "it is appointed unto men (human
beings) once to die, but after this the judgment..." (Hebrews 9:27)
My point? Everyone suffers pain and difficulties in this life. Everyone
dies. No one gets out alive. So we cannot look at the circumstances of
our
lives and assume that God has abandoned us or written us off. I don't
believe He writes anyone off. The historical narratives of the Old
Testament show that the Lord will receive anyone who repents, even at the
end of a long life of terrible sins. God does not write us off.
On the other hand, we do sometimes simply run out of time. And we may not
have an op****tunity to grow old - or to repent later on.
Are you away from God? Trust the many promises of God in Scripture that
offer you forgiveness and acceptance. Act today on that faith. Allow the
Lord to do the one thing He loves doing for everyone: transforming your
life
into something good and beautiful.
If you are a child of God, and yet things have been really bad for you
lately, do not lose your confidence in the goodness and love of God. The
Scripture is clear that God allows difficulties and even terrible stress
in
order to perfect our faith. We have Christ who will grant us His peace.
When we place our fears and worries in God's hand, He will always see us
through. He will not fail us.
Jim
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