Have you ever though that way? Why? Why would it be in our mindset to connect living a Godly life and having an easy life? Do we assume or desire that Godliness is next to easiness?
I ask this and write this in a time of personal great pain. Right now it appears that much of the life I wanted, a life of activity and outdoors, of freedom of movement and the ability to build and create is over. Depression desire to rule my life and make me live as though God has abandoned me, has love wicked and evil people more than me. It is a time in my life when selfishness is at its most crafty ploy and self-love empowered by pain.
God desires for me, and everyone in the world, to live the best life possible.
God made us free, so that each one of us can choose to hurt ourselves, others and our offspring.
God gave us power and authority to sow and reap, to invest and harvest what was invested.
God empowers us to break the chains of sin and evil and release in the individual and the culture, new hope and new beginnings.
Today, like millions of people around the world, I am looking for the coming of the Christ. I need His activity in my life and the testimony of Him that I have, creates a tension of hope and reality that brings conflict on the deepest internal levels. I know that He heals, but will He heal me. I know that I have a part to play in His plan, but am I up to it. Will I fail on my part?
As we search the Bible and History we find a mixed bag of results. Great people like Moses, Paul, Job and Jeremiah lived for God and had rough lives. Others like Daniel and Ester lived in evil cultures and were blessed by the Lord. Then in Hebrews 11 we see the testimony of great saints of faith, some appear to have an easy life, others suffer and still others choose suffering as a better way. And there lies the key.
Those who suffer so that others have a better way, so that others have an opportunity to receive the promise, choose a path that so conflicts with the world system that it hurts. From the child who is murdered for Christ Jesus to the business man who loses He business because he would not deceive, from the women divorced because she would not join in immorality to the teen beaten because they would not join a gang, all these can be those who chose to identify with Christ at the cost of being beaten by the world.
But still the question remains, why would you choose that? Why would you wound your family so that other families could possibly be healed? Why would you give your life up to that level?
Writing somewhere around the 1900 a missionary, now seasoned by years of service, realized that the very people he went to help, did not want his help. These people did not want to receive the light and knowledge of God, they loved their ways and darkness more than the light. Having been driven by the need of this people group this man now questioned why God sent him. He struggled through the issue of being sent because of their need, for in themselves they had no need for God, they did not want Him. But it was God who had the need. It was for God, for the will of the Father that this man was sent. It was not a human need that compelled, but the heart God of the Father Himself. So all the sacrifice, all the cost, all the suffering, all the rejection; was not for the people, it was for the Father.
Don’t waste your suffering. Allow the ancient words of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” to speak to you. Even if your lot in life is a life of fighting against mental illness, poverty, sexual abuse, hatred or sickness; do so not for humanity but for God. Let nothing separate you from Him. Do not be overly burdened by apparent success in the world, yet look daily for the affirmation of heaven. In your weakness reveal divine strength. In your poverty, demonstrate the riches of the resources of heaven. This involves a mental attitude, but transcends it. You do not want just the desire or thoughts, but the expressions and impressions.
Souls are being ready for harvest, so too are the saints. People of God are maturing and coming to the place of living fully for God. This growth and maturity involves people of God living in the world, but now of it. It involves being “light” and “salt” while releasing kingdom power and authority, even in their suffering.
