Several years ago, when I was at a small group meeting, one of the girls in our group was discussing some recent growth she had experienced in the midst of difficult family circumstances.
“I think God blesses us with families so that we learn to be humble and to grow in Him,” she said.
Another girl in the group responded with wry humor, “Or families are a curse from the Fall!”
Photo by SuziJane (flickr.com)
We’ve all experienced rough times with family members. Even those who come from supportive Christian families still have to deal with conflicts, as multiple people with their own ideas and wills have to co-exist daily. While I don’t think families themselves are a part of the Fall (after all, Adam and Eve were put into a family together before the Fall), I do believe that the tensions and frustrations many people associate with “family” are a result of sin and the Fall. Since we are all sinners, we all hurt each other – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.
Where friends, co-workers, teachers, and strangers are concerned, we can ignore people we don’t like. We can create distance and remove regular opportunities for conflict. With family members, especially those who live in the same house, distance and escape aren’t as practical. Living in families requires us to face our sinful natures – to struggle with our own sin and to struggle with others’ sins toward us.
And yet, in this broken mess that is often “family,” God is working. He is growing us, shaping us to be more like Jesus. The key is that we have to let Him do it. We can’t resent our family situations so much that we stop listening for His voice. We have to expect God to meet us right where we are and to work on our behalf, even when He doesn’t do it in the time or the manner that we think He should.
Have you ever felt like you were “cursed” with a family, rather than “blessed”? How is God working in and through your family life? Even if you can’t see or think of anything right away, spend at least ten minutes today thinking and praying about the good works that God is doing. Pray until God brings something to mind. Then thank Him for His provision and His strength. Ask Him to sharpen your faith through your family.
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides You,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember Your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
You were angry.
How then can we be saved?
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
No one calls on Your name
or strives to lay hold of You;
for You have hidden Your face from us
and made us waste away because of our sins.
Yet, O LORD, You are our Father.
We are the clay, You are the potter;
we are all the work of Your hand.
Isaiah 64:4-8
Isn’t it comforting to know that in spite of all of our shortcomings, our failures, our sins, that God still cares for us? These past few weeks, we’ve been focusing on different aspects of the way God relates to us. Like a Father, He tenderly cares for us. He takes pride in us and desires our best. Even when we rebel against Him, He loves us. As a Friend, God wants to be intimate with us. He confides His plans to us, and asks that we meet with Him, face to face. This week, we think about God as our Master. He is more than a Father who desires our best; He is also a Master potter who forms us with His very hand. If we let Him, He will mold us into a new creation. Hallelujah!
Have you ever felt like sometimes we (Christians) are too chummy with God?
Now, I’m the first to confess that I need more intimacy with Jesus, not less. I want more of Him, a deeper relationship, stronger faith. I want to know His thoughts and His heart for me and for the world.
But allow me to play “you know who’s” advocate for a moment. Sometimes, I feel like our focus on intimacy with God as our friend overshadows our understanding of God as King and Master. Like all things, it’s easier to go all in one way or the other, instead of having a balance.
What do you think? Is it hard for you to view God both as your friend and as your King? How do we seek intimacy with Him, while at the same time, revering Him?
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (1 Peter 5:8-9).
Sometimes spiritual life feels like this, doesn’t it? We think we’re doing things right – we’re sticking to the “water” where we don’t think the enemy can reach us. Then, the next thing we know, in the midst of our church-going, Bible-studying, and prayer, the enemy has got us on dangerous land by the throat.
Fortunately, the analogy changes there. Unlike a real lion’s prey, Christians, the “prey” of the devil, have a lot of weapons available to fight back.
When the enemy has you by the neck, it’s very tempting to forget the good stuff you filled up on when things seemed to be going well. It’s easy to turn away from those things, in fact. It’s easy to say, “Well, God said He would protect me, but I don’t see Him anywhere now, so whatever. I guess I’ll just do what I want to do anyway. I guess I’ll fall back into temptations I had been running from. He doesn’t seem to care what happens to me.”
But when we have a reaction to suffering that rejects the good things we’ve put into our spirit, we stay in the enemy’s jaws. Eventually, we can be eaten up entirely – given over to depression and spiritual death.
If, on the other hand, we have a fighting attitude in the enemy’s jaws, he cannot stay locked on us forever. We can resist him, and it will work. It may not work exactly when and how we want, but if we persevere in our faith, if we take heart in knowing that we’re not alone, if we continue to trust God when it isn’t easy, we will overcome.
Have you experienced times of great trials and suffering in your life? What was your response? Have you had times when you responded with defeat? Other times when you responded with perseverance? What are some Scriptures that have helped you in hard times?
