As summer draws to an end; I’ll be honest and admit mine didn’t go how I had hoped. I had a few major trips I was looking forward to enjoying fell through for one reason or another.
Some relationships and friendships dissolved due to circumstances out of my control. I guess I’m just not an easy person to get along with. Unfortunately, most people expect fantasized perfect relationships without disagreements or obstacles.
On top of all that disappointment, I experienced a couple of health issues that I am still battling with today. My S.A.D. reared its ugly head in late spring this year instead of during fall.
While feeling at my lowest, I stepped away from social media to lean into God and prayed to hear my prayer. It is a lot easier to connect with God when we aren’t smothered by the noise of the crazy world we live in, our highs get low.
I remembered that this world isn’t my home and I shouldn’t expect to live my best life now like some false teachers preach and deceive people with. They follow the same game plan the devil did in the garden (Genesis 3:1-7.)
Satan wants to distract us from God’s best plan for us by getting us to focus on this life and whatever this world has to offer, Lord take me away from it. The temporary happiness of this world cannot satisfy the people of God.
Satan wants to give us temporary happiness and God wants to make us eternally holy forever. We cannot live like the world and desire to be like it, because we are called to be different. Jesus warned His followers in this world we will endure pain and go through some hard stuff (John 16:33.)
The truth is no one wants to endure hard times, but we all do. Because we live in a fallen world, we will experience hardships like pain, loss, and disappointments. The enchanted earth was lost in the garden when sin entered the world (Genesis 3:1-20, Isaiah 59:2, Romans 5:12.)
The first Adam traded the goodness of God for the goodness of the earth. Pain and suffering are part of the broken relationship between God and creation. Contrary to popular belief, God’s discipline isn’t always punishment for sin, it is also good for us and God uses it to discipline or grow us spiritually (Proverbs 12:1; 13:24, Hebrews 12:11.)
Sometimes is hard to see the good in our suffering, but the Apostle Paul is clear, God uses all things for our good, even the broken pieces (Romans 8:28.) Jesus taught God lets hardships fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45.)
We must remember how God used the persecution of the early church to spread the gospel and grow the faith of those born again. If we aren’t growing spiritually, then we are spiritually dead already and Satan has deceived us.
Spiritual growth is essential to the life of a Christian. We aren’t saved just so we can have fire insurance and live a “blessed” life. That is a worldly and anti-Christian perspective.
There is so much more to the spiritual life than feel-good and inspirational sermons. Some American churches have settled for casual and comfortable Christianity, instead of biblical Christianity.
We must grow and the faith and spread the gospel, all of it! Too many preachers and teachers cherry-pick Scripture to make their congregations happy, it is the same tactic as Satan in the garden.
We don’t come to church or the faith to be comfortable or happy; we come to grow closer to God and to change the world. Like Jesus, we must bring others to God with us (Isaiah 56:8, John 10:16.)
Jesus didn’t spend his time with the religious people of his day or stay and safe places, he went out to the least of these in the outcasts. The 21st-century church needs to get out of our comfort zones and go to the danger zones if we want to grow spiritually and grow God’s Kingdom and light it up.
Nothing grows on the mountaintop, it just has great views. Too many people come to church for what they can get from God or to look spiritual. If we only worship God when He blesses us, then we don’t love Him, we just love what He does for us, but not when the table is turned. And that is spiritual immaturity, Like babies who always want more, we need to let go.
I don’t want a woman or anyone to love me for what they can get from me, but for who I am for all my days. Relationships don’t grow from getting, they grow because we give. Consumer Christianity doesn’t bring spiritual growth; it produces a comfortable Christianity.
As a gym rat and health nut, I know muscles must be tested and stressed to grow. Easy or fun workouts don’t produce strong muscles. Trendy exercises may be fun and make us happy, but they don’t make us any stronger or healthier.
As a RUNNER and a cyclist, I know my goal is to get my heart rate up into my target heart rate zone to make my heart muscle stronger, even if it means I have to be hot and uncomfortable in the process, I know the benefits of training hard (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Philippians: 14, 1 Timothy 4:7-8, 2 Timothy 2:5.)
The Apostle Paul didn’t live a comfortable life and he endured many hardships we can’t imagine, yet God used it to strengthen him and grow the early church (Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.)
Like lifting weights and exercising, we aren’t getting stronger unless we are enduring hardships (1 Peter 4:12- 13.) God’s goal isn’t to make us comfortable, but to COMFORT us in the hard times we experience.
Too many believers go to church to have fun and socialize, just like unhealthy people go to the gym for the wrong reason. God calls us to be holy, not happy.
A faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted. God will test our faith to help us grow spiritually. Even Jesus was tested and faced hardship in this life. Scripture shows how suffering and pain drew Jesus closer to God.
Charles Spurgeon wisely said, “You would not pray if you did not have trouble. It is a blessing to be stunned to your Father’s feet.” The Apostles rebuked the early church for their spiritual immaturity (1 Corinthians 3:2, Ephesians 4:15-16, 1 Peter 3:18.) Spiritual maturity means to be somebody. We need to get out of our comfort zones and endure the hard stuff (Romans 5:3-5.)
