Why is this happening to me? (Part Two)

           

 

 We often find ourselves in the valley of despair because God wants to reveal his nature to us but also because he wants to teach us things about ourselves. 

“These [trials] have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”   (1 Peter 1:7)

When you find yourself in the stormy trial:

            1.  You are in a place of wandering.  You are in a place where you don’t know what your next step should be.  You are not sure which direction God wants you to go.  This can be a frightening place to be.

            My father took me to his Uncle Tom’s house to hunt deer.  It was my first deer hunting experience.  I was only 12 years old.  The snow began to fall gently.  They set me up on a small hillside and attempted to drive the deer my way.  But I got impatient.  I became restless so I began to wander away sure I’d see a deer just over the next hill.  The snow fell harder.  It was near blizzard conditions.  Darkness was approaching.  I could hardly see.  I had been wandering about for a couple hours when I saw tracks in the snow.  I was so relieved.  I would follow the tracks out of this dark and dreary valley.  But the tracks were mine.  I was going in circles.

            I escaped that valley by climbing.  I climbed to the top of the mountain and when I got to the top I could see my uncle’s house on the hillside across the valley.  I made a beeline for safety.

            When we are in a place of wandering it can become confusing.  We can get disoriented.  Our way can seem like the right way but until we choose God’s way we will only be traveling in circles. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” – (Proverbs 14:12)

            2.  You are in a place of waiting.  Are you feeling the weight of circumstances over which you have no control?  How often does God ask us to wait and waiting can be the hardest thing to do because it goes against our nature to want to rush forward. 

            I recently broke three bones in a motor cycle accident.  After six weeks I went to the doctor for x-rays and an evaluation.  I wanted to mow the lawn again and carry my grandchildren but he instructed me to hold off for another six weeks!  Waiting is so hard to do but it is often necessary for total healing.  The wounds of the heart are often healed with much passing of time.

            There are great benefits to waiting:  “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. – (Isaiah 40:31)

            3.  You are in a place of warfare.  Your Christian faith glorifies God but it annoys and enrages Satan.  If Satan can destroy your faith he can destroy your soul.  Satan is battling for your eternal soul.  If he can rob you of faith you become weak and vulnerable like Samson with his hair shorn off. 

            God allows the testing because he wants you to grow, to mature, he wants to sanctify you.  He wants you to be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. 

            I think most of the trials we suffer are to teach us humility and dependence on Him.  The chief end of man is to bring glory to God and when we are too much in the way we can’t glorify God.  Trials test our humility

            a.  We fail the test of humility when we complain.  How often do we find ourselves whining about the battle?  We become ‘sunshine soldiers’ unwilling to endure the difficulties and discomforts of warfare.  We sin when we gripe about things.  We fail when we refuse to submit and humble ourselves before God.

            There are seven things listed in the Book of Proverbs that are hated by God.  The first listed is pride.  God hates a proud heart.  (Prov.6:16-19)

Pride is comparative.  No one is proud because they have nice clothes, or a nice car or a nice house.  We are proud because we have nicer clothes, a nicer car or a nicer house than someone else. 

            b.  We fail the test of humility when we boast.

            “Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father…” (James 1:17)

            God’s word to the people in the wilderness:  “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” (Deut. 8:2)

            “You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…” – (Deut. 8:17-18)

            We must learn to see God as the source of all things.  But there is one more step he expects us to take.  He also wants us to allow him to regulate what he has given us. “Thank you Lord for what I have, now, how do you want me to use it?” He gives us gifts for our enjoyment but he also gives us gifts to be used to bring glory to Him.

Kevin Probst - Teaches Bible and Apologetics at Lafayette Christian School in LaGrange, Georgia.

The Man In The Iron Cage

Christian, in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, comes upon a man in an iron cage. He seems very forlorn and depressed. So Christian asks about his condition and the man declares that he is not the man he used to be.

“What wast thou once?” asked Christian.

The man indicated he was once a bold professor of Christ. He thought himself prepared to enter the celestial city and experienced a joy that one day he would spend eternity with Christ.

“Well, but what art thou now?” asked Christian.

“I am now a man of despair in this iron cage and I cannot get out.” he replied.

Christian asked him how he had come to such a point of despair. “I left off to watch and be sober: I sinned against the light of the word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I tempted the devil , and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and he has left me: I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent,” groaned the hopeless man.

Christian feels an overwhelming desire to help the poor man, “Call upon the Son of the Blessed, he is very merciful. Can you not grasp hope, man?”

But the man in the iron cage declares there is no hope. “I have despised his righteousness. He no longer hears, indeed, he hath denied me repentance. I have sold my soul for the lusts, pleasures and profits of this world.”

Had this man so sinned against God and for so long shook his fist in the face of God that he had finally become an apostate? He had pretended love for Christ and handled the truth of God’s word carelessly and spoke of the great attributes of God with frivolity. He had so totally and unabashedly rejected the holiness of God that his heart was now hardened to the point where he could not possibly repent. He would never be saved. He would never be rescued from his despair. He would never again know freedom outside his iron cage.

Even though this man experienced a great amount of sadness and felt overwhelming despair, he had no sorrow in his heart for his sin, no humility or tender thoughts regarding the crucified Christ. Therefore, “God hath denied me repentance. His word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, himself hath shut me up in this iron cage. Nor can all the men in the world let me out.”

It is a fearful thing to consider that a man might finally be sealed in his unbelief. Christian described this man in the cage as a “Man (who) had sinned himself quite out of hopes of God’s mercy.” Saul may have reached this point in his disobedience to God. Samuel records (1 Sam. 28:6) that Saul “enquired of the Lord but the Lord did not hear him.” We often entertain a deception when we say “as long as I have breathe I have hope.” Bunyan said, “The day of grace ends with some men before God takes them out of this world.” It is not possible for men to determine when another man has reached an apostate condition where his heart has hardened beyond hope but we know it can happen. Consider Esau who “found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears.” (Heb. 12:17)

The man in the iron cage had repeatedly refused to heed the call of God. In so doing he had sinned against the light of God’s Word, he had grieved the Holy Spirit and provoked God to anger. In a sense, he had spit in the face of God one too many times. Proverbs 29:1 says, “He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

There was a 59 year old man who sat in a German prison for 34 years having been convicted of murder. He was finally offered his freedom, but chose to stay in the prison rather than return to freedom. This man indicates no fear of returning to society nor does he indicate any anger, he just simply refuses to leave. Like someone affected by Stockholm Syndrome, he seems to have reached a point of reconciliation with his captors and finds captivity bearable, even comfortable.

Does this not demonstrate the mystery of the presentation of the gospel? Some respond with penitent hearts but others respond not at all. That man whose soul is pocked with guilt for sins committed is offered freedom through the purchasing power of Christ’s blood yet he rejects the offer and chooses rather to stay in his iron cage. Though some have understood the way of salvation and that a path of purity was demonstrated and made possible through a merciful Savior, still, they choose to remain in the iron cage of their sin.

Are you tired of sitting in an iron cage? Have you trusted in the power of Christ to open the door of your cage and set you free or have you insisted he leave you alone until your ears no longer hear his plea, your eyes no longer see the mercy in his face and your heart has become stone hard and there is no feeling whatsoever about the sacrifice he has made, the condition of your own heart or the destination of your soul?

It’s hard to imagine going to a zoo and opening the cage of the lion or the monkey only to discover they have no desire to leave? Have you ever held a dog captive on a chain, released him and watch him willfully return desiring the chain to be placed again about his neck? Has Christ unlatched the gate of your iron cage, swung the door wide open in an offering of freedom only to discover that you are quite comfortable in your iron cage and you have no desire to leave?

When Christ offers us freedom, our refusal is a slap in his face. This act, repeated often may very well lead to a state of apostasy wherein repentance becomes impossible. Our hope in Christ is a wonderful gift, a treasure never to be trampled upon or ignored

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.