God's Will 3

Hey quick thanks to everyone with their insightful comments. I know this issue hits close to home that is the whole reason I wanted to discuss it!

 

We have at least one more post on this subject after today's but today I want to do what I do often and take a bit of a rabbit trail.  My last post was all about the fact that often God stops talking because you should already know what He wants you to do!  That can be a depressing message or it can be an uplifting one! 

Let's deal with depressing first.  I know that for years I begged God to give me the next Word because the last one was unbearable!  I was so sick and tired of languishing in that place!  Working so hard and getting no where.  Dreaming big and seeing nothing.  Trying and failing or having moderate success at best.  It is an exhausting, confusing, frustrating ordeal.  It really really sucks.  It makes you wonder if you heard Him right after all.  It makes you question, "is He good?  Is he real?  Does He even care? Did I do something wrong?" etc etc etc. 

Let me help you if I can.  I want to lift your vision higher than it is.  We get so lost in the, in our face, day by day, realities that we forget what this life is all about.  We were made to be enjoyers of God.  We were formed to be loved by Him and to love Him in return.  EVERYTHING that happens to us, good, bad, tragic, joyful all of it is a gift from the lover of our souls TEACHING us to love Him more.  He puts us in the desert so we can come out leaning on Him like in Song of Solomon.  The Bible has lots to say about this.  I love Paul.  "I consider that this present suffering is NOT WORTH COMPARING with the GLORY that will be revealed in me." or a little later "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" and James, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." and especially Jesus, "Blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted".

 

This life isn't about this life!  This life is about the NEXT LIFE!!!  We were made for eternity!  This life has value and worth and eternal significance no question.  This life will determine what our eternal state will be.  That is why we must run the course of this life with obedience, endurance, and patience, but this life is not an end in itself.   So when we obey the Lord and it all fails it is no failure.  When we see what looks like meaningless disaster we know it is not meaningless.  When we dream and our dreams slip away we know they do not slip away forever!  Everything we lose we get back and 100 fold more because the resurrection is real coming.  Jesus said that a seed has to die and go into the ground for fruit to come forth.  God is so much more concerned with eternal fruit, on the inside and the outside of us, than He is the puny grapes of temporal accomplishment.  So even when you feel like you are accomplishing nothing you are WRONG AND it is no excuse to give up and stop pushing, reaching, and believing.  Everything God calls us to do is hard and sometimes He calls us to fail!  I believe that!  We will look back at our failures and see the unstoppable grace of God working in our lives to make us more like Christ.  It is the proof of our faith that is more precious than gold NOT the proof of our effectiveness!