Job 1:21, 2:10: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. ... Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
I think one of the hardest lessons to learn and one of the greatest indicators of humility is learning to praise God, to trust Him, and to cling to Him ... in the pain and in the hard times.
Learning to praise Him, trust Him, and glorify Him completely - regardless of what's going on in our lives – is a lesson all believers will face at some point (and most likely at many points). It's a necessary part of the spiritual journey. But it can be a messy, painful part of the journey. Because it often comes in ways we never wanted.
I'm just wondering ... How many times have you heard well-meaning Christians say something like "Jesus is my everything, and I'll trust Him no matter what"? Maybe you've said it yourself.
But how many of us say this while we still have everything we need, while life is still simple and sweet and predictable, when we haven't really faced "no matter what" yet?
I think we mean well and really want to honor God, but it's so easy to make these grand, naïve claims of "I'll trust you, Lord, even if everything goes wrong" ... until everything goes wrong.
And that's where the trials come in. Trials open our eyes to the ways our faith and trust in God is contingent on something else. On how He blesses us. How He answers our prayers. If things go our way. If we have all we need. If we're happy. Etc.
Trials expose all the things that get in the way of true faith in God, the kind of faith that really does trust Him no matter what. Trials force us to decide if God really is enough for us or if we need something else to lean on. Trials force us to decide whom we will serve and what rewards we will work for (temporary or eternal). Trials expose who's really on the throne in our lives. Trials purify our faith and our trust in God.
And while I wish there was an easier way, learning to truly trust in Him - to be able to praise Him no matter what - can only be learned the hard way, when we find ourselves facing the "no matter what" we never thought we'd face. It can only be learned ...
... when God strips us of things we want or “need” so that we can learn that He is enough for us ...
... when we find ourselves knocked flat on our backs and realize that only God can pick us back up again ...
... when we're at the bottom of a deep pit only God can get us out of ...
... when we finally learn to follow Him instead of constantly trying to lead Him ...
... when we begin to rely on Him and not on others or ourselves ...
... when we take down the walls and defenses we've built between us and Him, letting Him fully into our hearts, minds, lives, and pasts (This can be terrifying to some of us, afraid of what He'll find. But guess what? He knows it all already and loves us anyway. He's just waiting for you to be honest and to let Him in. If you keep Him on the outside, He can't help you heal.) ...
... when we give up selfish or sinful things that we are holding onto so that we can become the person He wants us to be (Sin is a wall that keeps Him out of your life, that blocks Him from being able to help you and heal you.) ...
... when we learn to hold things loosely – our desires, dreams, goals, accomplishments, possessions, relationships, life, other people – remembering that everything we have is a gift from Him and should ultimately be about His glory and for His purposes ...
... when we willingly give up our will so that we can get in line with His, following the path and plans that He has for our lives, bearing that crosses that He lays on our backs (thankfully, sometimes God’s plans for us do coincide with ours, but not always) ...
... when we stop feeling sorry for ourselves - for everything that’s happened to us, everything we didn’t get, everything that didn’t go our way - and we remember that He is good, loving, powerful Father who is above all and will work everything out for good ...
... when we stop seeing and defining God through the lens of our disappointing circumstances or unanswered prayers, and we begin to see Him for who He really is (Read your Bible from beginning to end, regularly) ...
... when we learn to trust that even when He is silent, He is still listening, still cares, that He is working behind the scenes, and that He will act when it is time ...
... when we choose to accept His “no” and to cling to Him anyway, instead of getting bitter or giving up on Him or going our own way.
[And for those who are richly blessed with earthly things and who are spared from confidence-crushing trials, it can only be learned when you realize that no earthly thing – no matter how enjoyable it is – can truly fulfill you and bring you purpose and meaning and Life. You can only find these in Jesus.
Unfortunately, I think you might have a harder time developing a pure trust in the Lord - because when we have all we want and we can always make our dreams come true, we learn to trust in our own self-sufficiency and we incorrectly think we're focused on God when we're really just focused on the gifts He's lavished on us or on what our own efforts have accomplished. (And we might even incorrectly interpret our successes and possessions as His approval of our lives and faith, as Him being extremely pleased with us.)
But self-confidence-crushing trials cause us to put our confidence in Him, not in ourselves, because we've learned that we are just not enough on our own, that we need the Lord. But we also learn that that's okay, that it's the way it should be.]
Oftentimes, our discontentment, distrust, and fear come from misconceptions we have about God and ourselves, from unreasonable expectations, from old wounds that ruined our views of ourselves and of God, and possibly from outright rebellion or disobedience. (And we need to explore and work through these things before we can get to a place of contentment and trust.)
And many of our “faith struggles” come because we are not looking for God as He is because we are looking for an easily manipulated, Vending Machine God who will give us what we want when we put our money in and push the button. But this is not who God is. And this is not what faith is.
In order to know what faith and trust really is - to have the most whole, satisfying, fulfilling, sweet (sometimes bittersweet) relationship with Him possible - we have to allow God to strip us down when He chooses to strip us down. Because we can’t learn to be content with little unless we have little. We can’t learn to be faithful during the trials, waiting, heartache, “not yet,” and “no” unless we face the trials, waiting, heartache, “not yet,” and “no.” We can’t learn to praise Him in the pain unless we face the pain. We can’t learn to glorify Him in hard times unless we have hard times.
Trials are amazing opportunities for spiritual growth and development. To learn the things we can never learn in the good, easy times. Never waste a trial! Let the trials expose what's really in your heart - where your faith really is, where your rewards really are, what else you're leaning on besides God, and the reasons you trust (or don't trust) Him. Bring these things before God. Talk to Him about them. Confess what needs to be confessed. Ask Him for help with what you need help with. And remember that this life isn't all there is. The best is yet to come, when our good, loving, faithful Father will redeem all things, fix all the messes, right all the wrongs, and turn all the ugly things into something beautiful. And this - if nothing else - is as good of a reason as any to cling to Him, to praise Him, and to say “It is well with my soul ... no matter what!”
But a faith that is grounded in God as He is in the Bible - mysterious, powerful, far above us, loving, holy, sovereign, faithful, righteous, merciful, gracious, perfect in His timing, etc. – makes it easier for us to trust Him, even when things don’t go our way. Because we have learned to let Him be God.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus modeled the kind of trust and humility and faith that we should have in the hard times. In His humanness, He desperately wanted to live, to not go to the cross. He pleaded with God three times to “take the cup” of suffering from Him. And yet in the end, even though things didn’t go the way He wanted, He still trusted and loved the Father enough to say, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” He had enough faith in the Father to accept the hard times, to embrace the “no” answer, and to let His life – good times and difficult times, blessings and sacrifices – bring God glory. Can we expect to do any less?
Can we praise Him in the pain? Like Jesus in the garden, can we still call Him “Father” in faith and trust and love, even when the times are dark? Can we still be obedient when His plans differ from ours? Do we cling to Him in our desperate times because we know Him to be a good, loving, faithful Father who will work all things out in the end? Or are we only faithful to Him when we are getting what we want? Do we live like God owes us something, like He is a Heavenly Vending Machine that is here to give us good things, and like we can only really be “happy” when we get bigger and better and more?
"Godliness with contentment is great gain." (1 Timothy 6:6)
Planning to be content later - when some desire gets fulfilled, problem gets fixed, or dream becomes reality - is the very opposite of true contentment, of being able to praise and trust God no matter what, to rest in His strong, capable hands even when everything else is falling apart.
True contentment in the Lord starts right now, in the messiness, in the unanswered prayer, in the pain ... or else it never starts at all!
Praise the Lord by The City Harmonic
2 Corinthians 12:7-10: “To keep me from being conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Colossians 2: 6-7: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
(An updated repost)
