Why the Hard Things?
Last week I wrote about taking hold of our thoughts so that we are in calm, joyful agreement with what God tells us in James 1: that difficulties are what is needed to shape us to be like Jesus.
But why does it take hard things to make that happen? Don’t we have authority in Jesus’ Name to overthrow all the enemy’s schemes? Indeed we do! But the schemes of the enemy have more to do with our thinking than with our circumstances! We equate pain with being “in trouble,” or we blame the other people in our lives for our discomfort, or we wonder whether somehow God is having a hard time managing His universe!
Let’s look at those ideas more closely.
Most of us see hardship as punishment. If this were true, then something went dreadfully wrong because even Jesus who was perfect and completely holy learned obedience through the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:7-8), and He never did anything that deserved punishment! When we belong to Him, we have His righteousness; He took all our punishment for sin.
Jesus, our trail-blazer, willingly took the path of suffering all the way through the cross, because the payoff was US, His Bride! As we follow Him, we too, will suffer, but not pointlessly through senseless injustice, or under the “gee, I hope I get this right” discipline of human parents. Instead, our hardship (even what comes at the hands of other humans) is the loving (that is: seeking the very best for the one loved) plan of an all-wise Father who knows just what it takes for each of us to turn to Him for the goodness our hearts are lacking; it is the boot camp of spiritual fitness training…the kind that fits us to be good company for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Hebrews 12-13) And that’s what He wants most!
As for blaming other humans for our discomfort, Scripture has much to say. Taking responsibility for our own actions AND feelings is the bottom line here. Jesus does not expect that we will be treated well. In fact, quite the opposite. His promise to us is peace in trouble, not a peaceful life without it! In any confrontation about sin or bad behavior in another person, we must tread cautiously recognizing that we are all subject to the vicious “old man” in us, who is looking to take us down. The only person we can expect to change in any situation is US! And that only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As to whether God is having trouble managing His universe, Scripture affirms that even the mostly invisible forces of evil that inhabit the world along with us are under His dominion. We have His word on it that He sees to it that everything…EVERYTHING…works together for the benefit of those who belong to Him, chosen before He made the world, and that eternity- focused benefit is being made like Jesus.
Take Job: righteous recipient of more trouble than most of us can even comprehend, including a wife who’s had it with Job’s submission to God, and friends who are determined to find a failing in Job that will fit their flawed theology (that is: bad things only happen to people who have been bad). Satan insists that Job only says nice things about God because God has been “nice” to him. God who always knows what He’s doing, gives him strictly limited access to that righteous man. But it is not just to show the enemy that Job’s is not a fair-weather trust. God’s permission to the accuser to wreak Divinely limited havoc, has a deeper purpose: God is after Job knowing Him more intimately. The loss of family, possessions and health carves out a weakness that puts Job in a good place to have a close encounter of the divine kind. Without trouble, we would blithely bumble our way into hell.
Back to the question of authority over schemes…The authority we must wield in the face of the evil one’s plans is first over our thoughts, wherever we find that they do not line up with God’s. Once we have taken our thoughts captive to the truth, then it’s time to kick demonic butt and take names! Just like Jesus!
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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