Disappointed in God (1)
Why are the promises greater than the fulfillment? Why is God an under-achiever? If I truly want to be free from sin (and I believe I do) why hasn’t God delivered me as he promised? We hear all this talk about God being able to do "exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think" and then we see ourselves flounder around in sinful addictions or with a permanent case of the spiritual blahs. How can this be?
You understand that I’m not thinking here of people who don’t care about God or holy righteousness! I’m not talking about the hedonistic thousands who party every night of the week that they can afford to do it. They spend every night in dancing away the blues, they sleep around, abort developing humans and spend every spare penny they earn in self-indulgent enterprises. No, I’m talking about people who tremble with guilt, wrestle with fear and finger nervously the dismay that is steadily moving toward despair. The poor hedonists are another discussion for another time. Right now I’m thinking of beleaguered Christians who don’t know why their prayers for holiness aren’t being answered with God’s resounding and immediate yes.
And it wouldn’t be so bad if church leaders and teachers simply taught us about God’s promises to assure us of ultimate victory but they make immediate urgent demands of us in light of them. "Change now or within a very short time," they tell us, "or we’ll conclude that you don’t really want to be holy."
And many of us stand in stunned silence unsure what to think and fully certain that we don’t know what to say. We know we’re sinning, we know the promises that say things like God will supply every need of ours (Philippians 4:19) and we can’t get those two to gel. We sense that there’s something future in that "will supply" but we’re worried about 4:13 that says we are able to do whatever God wants us to do because he gives us strength to do it. Well, are we or aren’t we? Does he or doesn’t he? Is there some fine print attached to these promises that we aren’t reading? Does it come down to us after all? Is it a case of, "God gives us the strength to do whatever he wants providing you have the strength to cash in on his strength because if you don’t have that strength then his strength is no good to you"
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.