Will You?

 If you feel it an imposition to thank God for the blessings in your life, how will you ever thank Him for the trials? If all we ever do is grumble and complain when we have no earthly reason to, how will we rejoice in our suffering and tribulation? If everything we do, experience and see is through this earthly prism, if everything gets interpreted and filtered through the flesh, then we won’t, and that’s the truth of it, no matter how hurtful it may come across.

Only the renewed mind can see the benefits of suffering; only the sanctified heart can perceive the upside of tribulation, and trying to explain these things to someone who has not been renewed, restored, and reconciled unto God is an impossibility.

When broaching these topics, you often get the standard ‘Why would Jesus beat up His bride on their wedding night?’ because such individuals cannot perceive that suffering for the cause of Christ isn’t abuse but added adornments of priceless jewels on the bride’s crown. It’s not sadism or needless suffering; it’s enduring to the end and being a living testimony. Eternity is not about the here and now, it is about the hereafter, and until we come to terms with this undeniable truth, we will always see trials, hardship, and persecution as net negatives rather than positives in our lives.

Even though we are commanded that in everything, we ought to give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us, the only things we seem to be thankful for are the things that don’t matter eternally. Everyone’s thanking the Lord for the new car, the new home, the new job, with smiling pictures to prove it, but very few are thankful for the trials that refine and perfect.

If our definition of God’s favor and blessing is having stuff, then we’re no better than Job’s wife when she encouraged her husband to curse God and die when the stuff was taken away. The point isn’t that you shouldn’t have stuff, but that the stuff shouldn’t have your heart. Only God should sit on the throne of your heart, and He’s not interested in sharing it. Whether it’s your flesh, possessions, denomination, children, spouse, or parents, if your heart is divided and does not belong wholly to God, it will be used to marginalize Him and eventually dethrone Him altogether. Whatever men place above the will of God is what rules their hearts, no matter how vehemently they may deny it.

Wholly His means wholly His, not partially, not half, not even ninety percent. Especially in the Western world, this mindset is difficult to acquire because the distractions are plentiful, and those insisting that you can arbitrage your heart and sell yourself to the highest bidder are everywhere.

It is far easier to surrender wholly to God when God is all you have in this world. This is why those living in abject poverty, being persecuted for their faith in Christ, are so effective in their callings. There is no consideration for anything other than the will of God, and their lives are already forfeit as far as they are concerned. If they must suffer for the cause of Christ, so be it. If they must die for the cause of Christ, all the better.

Living by faith is not for the duplicitous or the faint of heart. This matters because the Word tells us that the just will live by faith, and that day is coming on faster than some may think. I don’t know how God will provide, but I know He will. I don’t see how God will protect me, but I know He can. Faith is the foundation upon which our hope of glory rests, knowing that if Christ is in us and with us, we will weather every storm that comes our way.

What have you to fear if He is near? What have you to worry over when He promised He will be an ever-present help in times of trouble? That some would grumble and complain now foreshadows the extent of the falling away that will take place once everything that can be shaken begins to shake.

Jude 16-19, “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.”

There can be no peace in the heart of someone walking toward the Promised Land while looking back toward Egypt. Some have even taken to walking backward just so they can glimpse what they left behind. Such individuals will always find a reason to grumble and complain because while they want heaven, they are unwilling to sacrifice the flesh in order to enter in.

Jude was eluding to this when he said that those who grumble and complain are walking according to their own lusts. Because they never broke ties with the world, with sin, or with their flesh, they walk about joyless, absent peace, rudderless and empty, perpetually off-kilter.

Imagine being cold to your bones, seeing a raging bonfire before you, but never getting close enough to warm yourself. Imagine being famished, hungry to the point of starvation, seeing a table laden with delicacies within reach, yet never being able to take, eat, and satiate your hunger. That is the tragic existence of those who insist on having one foot in the world and one foot in the church. That is their lot in life. The only way they can get warm, the only way they can get fed, is to repent, surrender, and humble themselves at the foot of the cross. Anything less is an exercise in futility.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.