Thursday, 10 July 2008
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God is in the Highs and Lows of Life...But What About the Middles?
Last week I went to a Kroger grocery and bought food that looked great in the store, but when I came home and opened each of the products, I found the strawberries were moldy, the pita was stale, and the bananas went directly from green to brown. I had very high hopes for this food based on my experiences from previous purchases, but these were a complete disappointment.I daresay Christianity is like that. After a few months of miraculous events in my life, it seems God is demanding a faith not based not just on his previous interventions in my life but one that is based on him.
At first, Jesus brought me to my new car, my new job...he helped me break from a really bad relationship, even saved my life! Then I lost the new job, and was given the amazing opportunity of spending three months studying God's Word and thereby developed a relationship with him. At the end of this, he brought me a true dream-job.
But reality set in. I got into a fender-bender with the new car. Began suffering all sorts of aches and allergies as I began adjusting to the new type of work. I became too tired (lazy) to study the Bible as much as I did. I remained single...
Moldy strawberries and stale bread...they're not like not Jesus, and maybe not even me, but perhaps my expectations of what this life would be. But what should I expect? No human life is going to be an eternal high. There seems to come a point of religious-drudgery that I desperately want to snap out of.
Before, I most saw Jesus when I was going though personal calamities. The faith developed there came from desperation. Now, life is going decently, and that faith, that trust that Jesus can save me from calamity, isn't the sort that drives me to him for relationship and day-to-day existence. It isn't the sort that can survive without Divine interventions and miracles.
Let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. Hebrews 12:1-2 , NLT
I need to have a faith in God that can grow in the times of plenty in the same way that it does in times of need.
How do you work on your faith so that it doesn't rely on spiritual highs or miracles in times of desperation? Do you find it easy to put God aside when things in your life are not so dramatic?
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Comments (12)
I find that reading about other people's highs inspires me, even when my life is sort of 'blah' at the moment. I look at simple things, like a gorgeous sky, or the smell of rain, and my faith is renewed. The simplest things can seem like miracles. Remember to pray every day and ask God what he wants you to see. It is easy to see the bad and the 'blah.' But simple miracles--flowers, a fresh breeze, the delicious smell of barbeque--exist every day for you to enjoy.
Maybe it's because I'm very melancholy-lots of high highs and low lows-but I don't seem to have too many blah times. I do find it easier to forget to depend on God for each moment when things are going well.
I think it's like marriage. There's a honeymoon, but then day-to-day life sets in. That's when you have to remind yourself daily of why you marriage someone, and you have to make a choice to love them no matter what.
In the same way, God wants to be with us in the honeymoon but also when we're waiting at the doctor's office or doing data entry at work or in any other task. We decide to love him in the mundane by communicating with Him wherever we are and spending time with Him. We don't have to be screaming and crying to pray; we can simply whisper our love to Him and our needs for the moment.
I believe that the closer we get to God the more we will see how exciting He is. Even the most mundane days are an adventure when we are holding the hand of the Creator of the universe. Through all of the little things, He is working the most exciting plan ever conceived of by anyone.
scripture says to remember God's faithfulness and as you think on Him and on what He has done... sing His praises...
with the understanding that every breath you take is a gift of grace... every heart beat that beats within your chest is an act of mercy...
just be grateful and let your faith rise...
i know for me... i need to adopt the heart idea that the need to cling to Jesus is a fulltime reality... whether good or bad... i need to cling as hard and has tight to Jesus as I can... Jesus never fails... and that's all that I can rest my hope in...
@Pickwick12@xanga - lol... i don't know... i don't plan on letting the honeymoon end in my marriage... it'll be honeymoon till the day I die is all I can say... lol
@leadworshipper82 - Exactly! That's the choice you make, and I think that should be our goal in our spiritual life as well. Good for you!
It's actually harder for me to remain steady during the good times. I remind myself it is just as fleeting as the bad times, and I am in no less need of a savior. I remind myself I am more likely to fall off of a high horse than off my knees.
Faith is all about seeing that God still remains God even though things are not always a walk in the park. The fact that we go through rough times and hardache doesn't take away from God's power or make him any less than who he is. When I keep that in perspective It helps me to maintain my faith.
That's kinda' what my wife and I are going through right now. My contract is set to expire next Spring, but my classes at this particular school will finish in September, so we don't really know if the school administration will keep me on for another six months after classes end. I have prayed, and literally demanded at times for God to let me know what is next (and then I laugh at myself for daringto "demand" anything of God! Who am I that I should demand?). The thing is, he is keeping the shades over anything past September and October (my wife and I will be traveling to Korea to go to my sister-in-law's wedding in Seoul). So what do we do, when everything looks gray (but not black or white), and cloudy (but not sunny nor stormy)? Keep prayin', keep doing what God has called us both to do, leaving the rest in his capable hands...
I absolutelly find it easy to put God on the back burner of my life when my life isn't so drastic. And, I hate that! I want to truly praise God in the everyday flat plains of my life just as I do on the mountaintops and valleys. I continue to serve in those times, just not always with a joyful heart. I've really been asking God to help me change that.
I think that as believers we have all enjoyed those mountain top times with God. They are so wonderful and refreshing! Truly, those times are a gift from the Lord. It seems that in those moments, we catch a glimpst of God's purposes for our life and where we fit into His much bigger plan. It seems that we can hear more closely, see more clearly and feel more intimately the heart of God when we sit high above the clouds. In those moments, He restores our soul. We pick ourselves up ready to conquer the world in Jesus' Name and set off to accomplish the things that have been planted in our heart. And off we go......
In short order, we find that life around us becomes hard. Trials may set in, discouragement may come knocking or we just get exhausted by the demands of the our day to day life. The reasons are about as numerous as there are people and each of us face our own unique obstacles. Heartache, grief, pain, sorrow, disappointments and busyness all settle like a heavy cloak over our hearts. Somewhere, somehow, our sense are dulled. We don't hear or see as clearly and God may even seem far away. We faintly remember this things He ministered to us on the mountaintop yet we are discouraged because it just didn't happen the way we had imagined.
It is easy to sit on the mountain top and receive instructin from the Lord. We can look over to the next mountain top and our hearts are filled with exhileration of what it will be like when we get there! Family or ministry or job or new direction....whatever it is to u that we are seeking God's wisdom for. We are encouraged because God has met us and spoken into the quiet places of our heart and we are so sure of where we're going!
One thing I've learned in my life is this. There lies a valley between the mountain tops. We have to descend from the mountain into the low places before we can start climbing to new heights. This is God's way for His people.
Please be encouraged! It is in those valley times that we are molded, shaped, refined and purified by our loving Potter's hand! Even in the times when our faith seems dry, He is at work! Whether things are good, whether things are hard we must keep our eyes on Jesus and remember that nothing separates us from His love...not even our own failures.
I am convinced that it is in those valleys that God prepares our hearts to be able to receive all that He has promised. We emerge from those low places changed. We are not the same person we were when we came off that mountain top. We have grown, we have matured and He has cut away childish and foolish things that would not allow us to receive the promises He has given us.
Not to make this a "book" but you can see that over and over and over with God's annointed in His Wod. David..Jeremiah and Elijah to name a few! If you read about their lives...they each had mountain top times with God and then descended into the valley where they were refined and purified...and then came forth from those times MORE powerful, MORE annointed and MORE prepared to do what God had called them to do all along! Those valleys didn't take God by surprise...He wasn't disappointed in them...they were annointed places that God used in their lives.
That encouages me in those times when I feel dry and alone. My faith is not based on what I see around me but rather on the faithfulness of God to me, His child. When those days come, I ask the Lord, "Give me Your eyes to see what you are after." I have found that He isn't set on delivering me quickly OUT of my valleys...He is interested in forming His character in me THROUGH those valleys. In His love and faithfulness, He is preparing me for the next mountain top!
i used to be like that. but after reading the bible continuously and learning to discuss God openly with people, i've begun to regard ordinary things or small occurrences of joy to Him. I know it sounds silly, but if you read footprints in the sand for teens, you'll come to understand that God wants to hear us not only through the horribly bad times and the wonderfully good times but also through all the other times in between. it feels good to thank God for the simple graces and to ask him for minute favors. you will find that He grants these wishes without a moment's hesitation if it suits His purpose. it makes it easier to continue looking towards Him even in the middles. cheers! =)