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| JAMES #15 Usually when a trial hits we don�t �think,� we �react.� If there�s ever a time we should think- it�s in the fire. Ever since my children were little I�ve repeated over and over, �Guard what you watch � Guard what you listen to � and now that they are old enough to make choices for themselves they�ve begun to ask �Why?� The answer is not necessarily a right wing religious one. Many times you�ll hear church leadership go on and on about the movies you should and shouldn�t watch, the music you should and shouldn�t listen to � and the perception is, �They�re just trying to control me with their religion.� Wrong- They are trying to protect you from being controlled by what you�re watching and listening to. We are deeply influenced by what we see and hear � it controls our thinking -This isn�t about �religion and rules and regs� � Look at Proverbs 23:7a For as a man thinks within himself, so he is. That is pretty clear. What you think, you�ll eventually DO and BE. We�re going to go into that in a lot of detail in the next few lessons � but for now, I want to remind you to remember who God is when you�re in the fire � and line up what you are thinking with who He is: if the two don�t agree, change your thinking and your behavior will follow. Easy to say- hard to do �alone. Question is: Are we supposed to do it, �alone�? No- Back to that �middle voice� in the word �JOY� � the middle voice indicates we work in �joint effort� with God�s Spirit � how? Absolutely stay on your knees and continually release the battle into His hands, remembering it�s not yours to fight. The next thing to do in the heat of the fire is remember WHY God permitted the trial. We�ve gone through an entire lesson on the �whys� � everything from wrath, to exposing qualities in us that God wants to release through us, to bringing the crud to the surface in our lives so that we can mature and move forward- Turn to Hebrews 5:7-9 He�s talking about Jesus Who sits at the right hand of God where He lives to pray for you- remember this: in every trial, you have at the right hand of God, the Son of God, who has one ministry now and that�s to pray for you. Yes, He�s gone to prepare a place and is coming again, but His ministry in heaven for you is to intercede for you in prayer. Question: Do you think God is going to answer his prayers? Yes � because he prays according to the will of the Father. Take a look at HIS �reaction� in the fire: Did He feel? Did emotion scream inside Him? Was it tough? Yes. The word �crying � there is translated �very loud crying.� Question: Did the emotions control His thinking, directing Him away from God? No. Did the circumstances work hard at convincing Him that God didn�t care? That God wasn�t there? That God didn�t really love Him? That God didn�t hear Him? Yes. Regardless of how He felt, where did He run for help? He remembered that �counting it all joy� required �joint effort� �Jesus ran to the Father and He was heard why? Because of His �piety.� Piety? What�s that? Piety: (Greek: eulabeia) a loyalty and willing submission out of deep respect and love: As God in the flesh, Jesus received the cross and death well from God the Father. Jesus� prayer was indeed answered, NOT by sparing Him from physical death, but by giving Him good joyful acceptance of what He would accomplish through death. NOTE: A willingness like this does not come through �feeling� � but from �knowing� � the Father�s heart: that it is indeed good, and full of love. It�s in knowing the love of God that our spirit�s are �galvanized� into willingness �giving permission to His hands in full confidence that whatever He does or does not do, we will indeed be blessed and He will be glorified. As a short side trip I want to expose a lie that the enemy often throws into play at this point when we are in the fire. Many times when trials hit, our immediate human reaction to them gets us into �sin� trouble because we DO respond to our emotions and make choices based on them. Let�s look at just a couple of scenarios- #1 There�s an affair � then a divorce � then a remarriage � then an affair � then another divorce and the thought at this point that�s the lie? I�ve made such a mess of things that even if I did turn to God, it�s so messed up that not only would God not want anything to do with me, but He couldn�t turn my life around even if He tried. #2 I�m married � my husband goes out with the boys/drinks until 2 in the morning- I�m going to go out with the girls and drink until 3 in the morning- I�m so lonely and I�m hurting so deeply that there�s no other out than to fill the emptiness up with more emptiness � my life is so messed up that God wouldn�t want it � and even if He did, it�s so messed up He could never use it � And the scenarios go on. Notice that at the very moment when we need the �joint effort� MOST, is when we�re completely convinced to turn away. The controlling element? Our thinking. We have nothing with which to counteract the lies � and in most situations, don�t even RECOGNIZE them. We�re convinced that God�s going to be as unfaithful to us as the rest we�ve encountered BECAUSE of how we see ourselves : something that the enemy has put in place and carefully defined at every turn in the road. This goes back to �faith� � being totally convinced that God deeply loves us. Think about this for a minute: Does unhealthy guilt, shame and self-hatred have any place to exist in the deep love of God? Has the adoption we�ve been given, the inheritance we�ve gained been enough to free us from the �fear� of the Father even when we mess up? Are we truly convinced of the �reliability� of God? -especially when we�ve messed up? What has experience taught us when we react unfavorably in a situation? Do people long for us to run into their arms and ask for help when we�ve just ignored them, falsely accused them, abandoned or rejected them, gotten angry with them? No � if anything they�d probably belt us one if we tried. Understandably then we hide our �true selves� � the selves we see � the selves that have been defined for us through the responses and reactions of others- we hide those true selves from God when we go to Him in prayer. We put on our �holy clothes� � as though God won�t see past them?? We truly are not convinced after two or three divorces, after drug addiction, after multiple sexual encounters �after money extortion, after sexual addictions, and suicidal tendencies- after battles with depression and despair � after fits of rage and self centered tantrums, that He can handle all that goes on inside our heads and hearts (because WE CAN�T and neither can anybody else). It�s in the heat of the fire that we�re often reminded of our failures- and equally reminded �There�s no way out- no turn around for you.� Do you honestly think God can accept the hateful thoughts I have toward my husband? Toward my best friend? Toward my father? My mother? What about my fantasies, my bizarre dreams? Can God make it through the maze of �false truth walls� that I�ve built in my mind: and find �me?� Especially in the fire, we conclude- nope- He can�t- and turn and walk away. The �joint effort� is abandoned and we hide in isolation and start to drown, hoping no one notices how desperately in trouble we really are. We with hold from Jesus what is most in need of His healing touch. In the heat of the fire: and in the middle of mess up after mess up after mess up- is there really a way out? Even if I, me, myself have created the mess? Even if I was the one who made the really wrong choices? We already looked at I Corinthians 10:13 and discovered that God�s not going to allow you to walk into anything that HE has not already previously EQUIPPED you to walk out of � the problem is we don�t get it! We don�t take advantage of the �joint effort� opportunity � working with HIS SPIRIT � and ASKING for WISDOM � we are not only not convinced that He deeply loves us but we�re even MORE not convinced that He�s reliable � that He�s really there for us-after all, nobody else has been. Look into the eyes of a mother who�s just lost her child. Look into the eyes of a wife who�s wrestled through three divorces. Look into the eyes of a man caught in sexual addiction. Look into the eyes of someone caught in depression and tell me that you see �hope.� There is NO HOPE in any of those situations, as well as in many other similar situations outside of being totally convinced that God loves us deeply and that He�s there FOR us. I wrestled with this with a friend in the midnight hours who was enraged over issues in her marriage- I said to her, �You�ve got one of two places to go in your head- and depending on which place you go, you�re either going to live through this, or drown emotionally.� �You�re either going to stay in the Word of God and fight back � reclaiming territory IN YOUR HEAD that the enemy is seeking to own by believing that God is not only deeply loving you, but is incredibly reliable � or you�re going to believe He�s abandoned you, against you, and doing nothing FOR you- He WILL be faithful to get you to where He�s taking you, but YOU are going to determine the journey. You�ll either float in the boat with Him: By asking Him for wisdom and responding to whatever He tells you to do in ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE - �JOINT EFFORT� � or you�ll be dragging screaming and flailing behind the boat, bobbing up and down in the wake, in attempts to grasp enough air to stay alive. Now YOU CHOOSE. It�s not about �changing the circumstances� - When we�re in the fire we can usually NOT change our circumstances: but with �joint effort� we can grow strong and remain secure in Him, regardless of how loud the emotion screams � and that�s God�s design. Part of this trial interruption in your life is �training� � mental training � that, of learning to depend. Turn to II Corinthians 10:5 Notice that �WE� have quite a bit of responsibility in this verse. WE are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God (those are thoughts that are contrary to what God says and contrary to Who God is) and WE are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. �How? First, we �Philippians 4:8� it : Is what I�m thinking true? Honorable? Right? Pure? Lovely? Of Good repute? Worthy of Praise? If it�s not � ditch it! Then, we take advantage of the �joint effort� opportunity. Look at Philippians 4:6-7 We step into the fire and immediately go to our knees. How do have �peace� in those circumstances? We train ourselves to have an IMMEDIATE response of �God, I don�t know what�s happening- but You do- I�m asking You for wisdom.� Examine my heart God- and forgive me for any sins I�ve committed: You already know what they are: (and you name them) Cleanse my heart � so that we can work together in this situation to turn things around- so that you are glorified and I�m strengthened. And THANK YOU � for the opportunity to that You�ve given me to be included in what you�re doing in this situation � � and then present your requests and trust His heart. And according to verse 7- what will �guard your heart?� The peace of God. When you�ve fallen in a trial it�s hard to �Count it all joy� and �Endure� because all you see is your failure and all you feel is the heat of the fire � the thing in question at that point is God�s reliability. Would He really respond � would He really forgive and help me? �after all these wrong choices? II Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself. (He dwells in us, remember?) What�s in question is not the reliability of God�s love, but more so, our willingness to claim it. Sounds easy, but it requires that we abandon the lies we�ve built around ourselves (I�m not good enough, God could never use me, I�m not smart enough, I�ve messed up too badly, - I�m.. I�m..I�m � using every moment of strength I have to defend what I�m absolutely not. ) it�s not at all about �me� � it�s about being included in �Him� � (grace- unearned favor) and accepting the invitation. Brennen Manning offered a graphic illustration that I want to extend to you- one that I hope will help you understand that nothing you do or don�t do will EVER change how deeply God loves you. �One summer afternoon my publisher was driving along the New Jersey turnpike. One hundred yards ahead in the same lane was a Lincoln Town Car. Tom was shocked when he saw the right rear door of the Lincoln, still moving at full speed, swing open. The passenger threw a collie onto the pavement. The dog hit the concrete and rolled into a ditch. Bleeding profusely, the collie got up and started to run after the car and the owner who had cruelly abandoned him. His relentless faithfulness was not conditioned or diminished by the abuse and callous disregard of his master. When you�re in the heat of the fire remember who God is: Abused, neglected, abandoned, ignored, hurt, disappointed, falsely accused, mistrusted, misperceived, and Relentlessly faithful. Take advantage of the �joint effort� and trust His heart. Love to you, Robin �copyright 2001 Jim and Robin Hibschman |
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