Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; Guide me in your truth and teach me

 

 

"Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day [the day of redemption vs. 33] catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

(Luke 21:34-36)

Jesus is speaking to the crowd in theses verses about the time of the end. Jesus tells them that it is a time of confusion, fear and tragedy. In Luke 21:25 Jesus says that there will be “earth-shattering events”. Events that will shake even the heavens themselves and leaving many people and nations feeling “powerless and terrified in the face of a roaring flood of fear and foreboding, crashing like tidal waves upon them. 'What's happening to the world?' people will wonder.”

Jesus knew that in times of great fear and difficulty, there is a temptation to dull the pain of our suffering, our fear of what the future holds, and the stress and burdens from our care.

Many years ago, I sat around a table with many other people. We all introduced ourselves as alcoholics. We had taken the path of drowning our pain in drinking. It allowed us to forget some of the pain for the moment, but overall, just made everything worse. Our lives had become an unmanageable wreck. But that momentary relief was really hard to let go of at the time.

It has been well over 30 years since I took a drink of alcohol. However, sometimes I find that I still am tempted to drown my worries, burdens and/or fears for reaching out for something other than God. Sometimes I may reach for something healthy like exercise. Other times, I can try to drown my fears and worries in eating. Life gets stressful and I reach for quick momentary relief in a pumpkin pie salted caramel ice cream treat. Or I distract myself from the pain in a movie or social media.

While dulling our pain, fears or burden by distractions of this life may feel good for a few moments, as Jesus warns, it will also make our hearts “drowsy”. Drowsy in this verse is also translated, dulled, weighted down, burdened or grown cold. The things that we reach out to fill us (other than God) in times of stress or pain, distance our hearts from God as they create a drowsiness of sorts. Our hearts become dull and cold.

In Matthew 24:12-13 Jesus says about these times of tribulation in the end, “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. 'But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.…”

Many people's hearts will grow dulled and cold by the distractions and short term escapes from the difficulties around us.  It is clear by the scripture versus in Luke that difficulties and tribulations are imminent and will assault everyone on the face of the earth for the time of His return. No one will escape suffering. Revelation 12:12 speaks of the devil coming in great wrath because he knows that his time is short.

Sometimes as Christians we may think that God will protect or keep us from pain. But it is pain that can grow our roots deep and our branches high. The bible is clear that as we near the time of return, the pain and suffering grow stronger and more continuous – like an expectant mother about to give birth.

But after the birth, we know that what comes forth is so incredible and amazing, a mother shortly forgets all the pain and suffering of the past. What often fills a new mother's heart is joy unspeakable and this miraculous and unexplainable sacrificial love for what has come forth.

I had a dream a month or so ago that it was no longer a question of if Jesus would return in our lifetime. Rather, it was common knowledge that people were talking about in their conversations. Perhaps my heart was responding to what seems to be a continual downpour of suffering, fear and burdens for so many people – wishing He would return and heal all our brokenness and pain.

Since God does not spare us tragedy and tribulations are imminent for all of us, how do we deal with them? Most often I think we look for the quickest way out of them. Wherever possible, we , often avoid suffering and difficulties.  And when they happen to us, we resent them.  We look for what we did wrong, who we can blame, and/or how to get out of them.

While someone may boast of all the wonderful things in their life, I never hear anyone excited telling about all the difficulties they are facing. In these situations, most often people's hearts are downtrodden and they are looking to get out of them.   Everyone feels sorry for them and prays for their lives to be less difficult.

Because we live in a world that caters to making us feel comfortable, this is often what we appreciate or value. But what does a comfortable life produce? Ever heard great success stories about someone fully living their dream while they were comfortable all the time?

Perhaps we need to start asking and praying for what will bring us closest and make us most like Jesus and walk towards this. If we ask ourselves the right questions in our pain, perhaps we will not be as quick to draw back and move away from it. Perhaps, 'What will draw me closest to Jesus?', rather than, 'What will be least painful or be the quickest way out of this?'

Ever notice that people who live in their places of comfort have the strongest tendency to envy others? Perhaps envy is a sign we are living too comfortably in  own lives.

A close friend of mine struggled with envy at times. It made our friendship difficult at times when something good would happen in my life and she would smile but I could clearly see she was not genuinely happy for me. Rather, it was a painful reminder to her that she was not where she wanted to be in life. 

At this time in her life, she was someone that lived in her comfort zone to an extent. She would get an idea or prompting from God and then she would move back into self doubt and wondering if God really loved her.
 

Just recently she stepped out in faith in a way that was way outside her comfort zone. I was so excited for her as her eyes began to open to potential and possibilities before her.  She became alive in new ways to dream and began to really see that God was for her and with her.  I feel like she is just beginning on this incredible journey of faith she is waking up into.

Stepping out of our comfort zones and following our hearts (sometimes even directly into difficulty) is something that may draw us closer to God and make us more like Him. Jesus followed His heart right into difficulty and pain all the time when He was on earth. Where it took Him was the cross. It is because of His willingness to step directly toward pain and difficulty rather than shrinking back that we have the life we do today.

This same thing is true with Paul. He set his face like flint towards difficulties and troubles all the time. He was even warned by prophets that he was heading towards trouble and would be bound (when he was going to Jerusalem). Yet, it did not detour him at all. It is because of this, that we have half of our Bible today that guides our daily living from him.

Often I fail to even witness Christ to those around me because it makes me uncomfortable. I don't want to be judged by others as someone who is off the wall. Yet, Paul was constantly being judged by others for his witness of Christ and it did not stop him or slow him down at all. Even when people tried to kill him, he got back up and proclaimed the truth.

Perhaps we (speaking of me here) are failing to ask ourselves the right questions. We are looking to what is easiest rather than what most glorifies God and draws us in closest to Him. Perhaps we (speaking of me here) need to learn how to embrace and invite pain.

So many life coaches out there that are trying to help us to have more full lives. But what ones really challenge us to move toward pain and difficulty?  What ones ask us what is missing that you really don't want to do but know if you did, you would be closer to God for it? Perhaps we all hide from pain and discomfort because we just don't know how to deal with it.

John says, we overcome in tribulation “because of the blood of the Lamb” and with the word of our testimony, not loving our lives even when faced with death (Rev. 12:11)

Rather than clinging hold onto life and the things that we value, we open our hands and trust God. We surrender our lives to Him. Rather than shrink back in fear and hiding, we step forward and offer what we have. We stand firm in our faith in the Lord and let everything that we do, be done in love (1 Cor. 16:14).

Hezekiah was a king that ruled in a time a great fear, anxieties and evil. During his rule, he stood up and defied Assyria's king. So Assyria's king, Sennacherib, came against Judah. Even knowing all the great acts of God of the past, when pressed by Sennacherib, Hezekiah immediately thought what he had done in defying this king was wrong and sent an apology note to him.

Rabshakeh, a military official came with a large army and offered King Hezekiah and the people to surrender. He spoke to all in their own language that they were doomed to have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine if they did not give up at once.

Rather than let fear totally overtake them, Hezekiah fasted, prayed and repented for sin, wearing sackcloth into the temple as he sought God. He did not look to anything else to soothe him but prayed diligently and waited on a word from God.

 

Isaiah came along and strengthened him, speaking words from God that they would be protected. They did not even need to fight because the Lord would take their enemies away. He even gave them signs that this would happen to strengthen their faith.

Because of the difficulty, the people were able to see the incredible workings of God. They knew him themselves as the one who was on their side and would protect them. They knew that God heard their prayers and cared for them first hand. It drew them closer to God.

In times of tribulation, the word says to be vigilant and pray. To be vigilant at all times means to be awake and alert – the opposite of drowsy. We are to seek God in our difficulty for strength to endure. Like Hezekiah, we can lay before God with our burdens unfolded before Him and pray to the God of all mercy.

As we look to God and trust Him with the struggles all around us and in our own lives, he will answer our prayers. Rather than become dull of heart and cold from hiding, protecting and numbing ourselves, He will make us shine like the brightness of the sun in the midst of our difficulties (Matt. 13:43).

We are to be lights, reflecting His light in times of darkness and tribulation.

 

Lord, help me to ask the right questions.  Forgive me where I have looked for where I could be most  comfortable rather than what would glorify you and draw me close.  Let us be people who follow in Your footsteps and willingly move towards pain when it is your will rather than shrink back.   Let us be a church that genuinely shines Your light in dark times.