Christians are in the middle of hard times right now. Taken in full context, it’s like nothing the world has ever seen. We’re in a hard time globally, we're in a hard time nationally, and many of us may be in a hard time individually.
And, it may very well get worse before it gets better.
If it gets hard enough, long enough, it can unsettle us and distort our perspective.
Since "repetition is the key to mental ownership", and since "owning" God's truths on a subconscious level is the only way to not go adrift in hard times, we must be diligent to lock in the things we've been learning in these blog posts. There are seven truths that I review frequently to keep myself balanced.
7 Truths to Balance Us in Troubled Times
- God loves me, and God loves his children, in spite of the fact that He doesn’t always make our lives go better.
2 Timothy 3:2 says, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
A quote by Elizabeth Elliot has helped me. She was the wife of missionary Jim Elliott who was speared through with a sword by the very people he came to save.
Later she wrote, “Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering…. The love of God did not protect His own Son…. He will not necessarily protect us – not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.”
So, we begin by accepting the fact that God’s love does not necessarily protect us from suffering.
- We must recognize the spiritual war we are in.
Ephesians 6:12-13 says,
"Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."
This passage tells us that our ultimate adversaries in our time of trouble are spiritual. Therefore, we must wage war on the spiritual level, even while we might employ tactics and strategies for the earthly dimension of the battle (such as voting wisely, etc.). We have to take up the armor, the shield, and the sword. We have to be alert and spiritually resolute (1 Peter 5:8-9). And we must recognize that nothing in a spiritual war is more important than prayer, since this battle will be won,
"'not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord" (Zechariah 4:6).
- We look for the temporal good in bad things.
Romans 8:28 says
“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purposes.”
As we cling to the promise that God will bring good out of anything and everything that happens to us, we focus on the additional good things that can always come from hard times.
- Spiritual transformation
James 1:2 – 4 says,
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
In the gold refinement process, the gold ore, along with all the clay, rocks and sand, is put into a vat and heated to a white-hot temperature until it is all bubbling like golden oatmeal. Everything that is not gold rises to the top and is skimmed off. What’s left is pure gold.
God does something similar with us. God wants the pain to refine us, to
separate us from our sin and make us more like Christ. It is not pleasant. But the goal is our spiritual transformation. That’s one good thing that will come out of this if we let it.
- Eternal reward
Romans 8:18 says, “
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
God gives us disproportionate eternal reward for earthly loss. Every “loss” we experience on earth can be transmuted into an eternal “gain,” if we respond to the Lord with faith, trust and obedience. When our heart aches over a loss on earth, we can receive comfort knowing the Lord will grant to us a heavenly gain that is beyond our loss, and lasts forever. For the Christian, there need be no loss – only delay.
- Deeper fellowship
Philippians 3:10 says, “…
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering…“
Christ suffered for us more than we suffer for Him. Though we typically suffer because we have to, He suffered because He chose to. When we grasp this, when we take this astonishing truth into our hearts, we develop deep appreciation and gratitude for what He has done in suffering and dying for us.
A bond of identity is forged with Him through our mutual suffering, and we can enter into a level of fellowship with Him, here and now, that we cannot know without suffering. And then, that relationship is carried into heaven, where it will not be constricted by sin and earthly limitations.
He hopes, I think, that we will observe how completely He gave himself to us, and that we would reciprocate by giving ourselves as completely to Him.
- We fix our focus on the future, when in the end, all will well.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says,
“Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
If we look at things that are temporal, we will lose heart. If we look at things that are eternal, we will be renewed.
Conclusion
When we maintain this eternal perspective, we can go through the trials as Jesus did. For us, I think it means:
- We trust God in the outcome, no matter what it is. God is in heaven prepared to allow some battles to be lost in the process of winning the war.
- We trust God in the process, and that we don’t have to do things that are un-Christlike in order to help Christ get his will.
- We can focus on doing what is right and leave the results to him.
- We can take meaning in spiritual transformation, eternal reward, and closer fellowship.
Because these things are true, by filling our minds with these life-transforming truths, and bathing that process in prayer, we can experience balance in troubled times.
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