So, in the grand scheme of things, my life is amazing. I graduated college in 4 years, met some fun people along the way, traveled to far-out destinations, have an encouraging family, an amazingly beautiful and loving girlfriend, a place to sleep, food on the table, and a bottle of merlot and a bottle of scotch on my dresser. Life is pretty good. To top it all off, my God is the great “I AM”. His mercy, grace, love, and faithfulness are new every morning. I am so undeserving of everything.
And yet…
…I still complain…I still worry…I doubt…I freak out…I try to control things…I live in regret…I live in fear.
As Emery would say, “Well, I guess you don’t have faith.”
And the truth is, sometimes I just don’t.
We have turned the word ‘faith’ into a meaning of belief rather than trust. Yes, there is some overlap, but allow me to illustrate. I can believe that God exists, but that doesn’t require me to put my trust in him. When I freak out about my future and worry how the loans will be repaid, how I’ll afford to get married, how I will take care of my family…I am doubting that the being that created the entire universe can take care of my measly $80,000 thank you gift to PNC, or the cost of a wedding, home, car, etc….
Lord, forgive me for the way that I doubt…the way that I assume in all the things you are doing, you may have overlooked my circumstances.
The brother of Jesus, James, wrote a book to encourage us. While you may not have the same circumstances as I do, we all have an area of our life that we worry about (some of us have several…). We have an area that we try to control, manipulate, or contain…an area that we don’t trust Christ with. We need to learn to let go of everything. Dying to ourselves may not just mean selling all our possessions, but its deeper than that…giving away our lust for control, success, identity.
God also asks us to be joyful. Freshmen year, sitting in Bible study, Pete Horning read to us confused, young men, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance…” This passage from the beginning of the book of James still haunts my thoughts when I start to doubt. It doesn’t even say, “Consider it joy…”…but it says ‘pure joy’. Dang. So what’s the answer to having pure joy? I’m not quite sure how to reach that point, especially when facing trials, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with this Jesus guy…
While all of our friends and family are freaking out about the recession and how times are tough, we have two options. We can freak out along with them. After all, I just graduated college and can’t find a job that pays enough for me to hack away at my loans, and I don’t know what I want to do with my life…pretty scary at times. Or we can rest in the assurance that in Christ we lack nothing. “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:19
Even more than that, we can be a guide that points others towards Christ in the way we handle life’s worries. Believe me, this entry is me preaching to myself for the most part, but I think we could all be more prayerful and intentional in how we represent Christ…in the good times and especially in the bad.
My prayer for all of us, is that we not lose hope. In the Scriptures, we are told, “…we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” May we forget battling to keep a foothold in society’s social/economic ladder. May we forget the security and empty promises this world offers, and flee towards the source of real hope (not Obama…but Jesus!). May he be our anchor, firm and secure and may we be GREATLY encouraged. The song “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” sings, “bind my wandering heart to Thee.” I pray that this is our prayer today and everyday as we venture through this journey in search of every way to glorify our Lord, Saviour, and friend, Jesus Christ.
Lastly, I leave you with this, a targum on the book of James. This interpretation has challenged me and opened my eyes to a God so much greater than any of my worries. After you read it, go back and read the book of James. I would love to hear what God is speaking to you and concerns and worries of yours I could be praying for.
1 Comment
July 23, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Today at Candace’s cousin’s funeral, the pastor talked about faith and how it’s like 2 sides on a coin. One side would be when things go out way. When we pray, and things work out how we hoped. On the other side is when things don’t work out. No matter how much we pray, it doesn’t come out in our favor, and that side is called trust.
This isn’t really much more than you already said, but the two things connected.
peace.