The Next Step Can Be a Difficult One
By Ben Fronczek
Over the past few weeks we have been talking about taking our next step in life. Because whether we realize it or not, there is always going to a next step one can take in one’s growth, in maturing, in our walk with Jesus especially when it comes to serving God as an individual or collectively as a church. In essence we are talking about steps of faith.
As I thought about this subject again this past week I thought about the fact that that taking these steps, or walking in faith and actually doing God’s will as He would have us sometimes can be very difficult. Quite frankly, God never said that doing His will and walking by faith was going to be easy. Sometimes obeying God is going to be downright hard.
Not many of us want to hear that. I don’t know anyone who purposely wants to struggle thru life. But as I look back thru scripture sometimes when God instructed individuals to do something many times it involved hard work, struggles of every sort, frustration, personal sacrifice, pain, sometimes you have to put up with people who frustrate you, and sometimes even death.
But before you give up and say to yourself, “I’m not up for any of this,” you need to also hear that most of those who went thru those hardships probably were very glad that they did in the end. Taking those steps of faith may be hard, but in the end there is a reward for those steps faith.
I’d like to talk about a few individual in the Bible, who took a meaningful step but had to go thru some real hard struggles, but in the end were rewarded.
Noah (Read Genesis 6:9-22) Now we read that Noah was a good guy and pleased the Lord, but the Lord had in mind to cleanse the earth. In Genesis verse 6:5 it states, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”
Mankind had become totally depraved and evil, so God told Noah the next step He wanted him to take was to build a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and about 45 feet high to house his family along with all the animals that God wanted to save because rain was on the way.
Now I don’t care who you are, no one is going to convince me that for Noah and his family this next step of faith was an easy one. Besides putting up with the ridicule of those who lived around him (maybe for being the crazy family that was building this huge boat out in the middle of nowhere), it probably took about 75 years of hard labor to construct that boat. An endless number of trees would have to be cut down, and then split or sawn into planks before they could even start construction. I can’t imagine the sacrifice and personal cost of such a project. But in the end, when it was all said and done, Noah and has family were blessed, they survived, and he became the father of all nations to follow.
Abraham (Read Genesis 12:1-7) ” The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
Abraham and his family would spend the next 100 years wandering from place to place with nothing more than the promise of God. They experiences one trial after another. Besides taking that big step of moving away from home and family to wander from place to place as nomads, they would suffer through famines, battles, and turmoil in the family with Sarah being barren so long. From the time he stepped out on faith life was difficult.
But in the end, beside God promising him that his family would grow into a great nation of peoples and would possess the lands they traveled on, God promised him that all nations would be blessed through one of His descendants, (talking about Jesus). God also personally blessed Abraham with a great amount of material possessions and wealth in his lifetime.
Moses As you know God gave Moses a huge task. At the age of 80 God told Moses to go to the Pharaoh of Egypt to tell him to let His people go. And as you read the story of God freeing and leading those people with Moses at the forefront, I can’t imagine the how hard his life had become after a peaceful life of leading sheep around in the wilderness. We read that these newly freed Jews were rebellious, argumentative, and corrupt. More than once God wanted to wipe them out and destroy them and start over again but Moses humbly interceded for them.
But in the end God blessed Moses. Moses got an opportunity enter God’s presence on top of the mountain where he received the 10 commandment on stone tablets. In Num. 12:8 we read that Moses spoke to God face to face. That’s why his face glowed with the glory of God like a bright light bulb. First hand he saw and experienced one miracle after another. Moses’ name would ever be memorialized and he was called a friend of God. And in the end, he got to see the promise land that this people would enter as a free people prior to his death. And at the transfiguration of Jesus which we read about in the Gospel accounts, Peter, James, and John saw Moses and Elijah appear in glorious splendor and talk with Jesus prior to His arrest and death on the cross. That’s right, proof that life goes on after this humble existence.
Then there was Joshua. He would be the next one to lead the people with God’s help after Moses into the Promised Lands. But his next step was not walk in the park for him. God would instruct him to lead Israel into the land and fight one battle after another. His next step was one of blood, guts, war and death. But in the end he was blessed with victory and a inheritance of land.
It seem like one Bible character after another had to experience hardship. Jeremiah preached for 40 years with little or no success. And because of that he is called the weeping prophet. It saddened him so that they were about to be destroyed as a people because they would not listen to God’s word and repent. Up until the day his prophecies came true he was abused and ridiculed. But in the end He would survive where others were swept away.
Jesus Even God’s own Son, Jesus, in order to walk in faith and be obedient to His Father, His next step meant he would also have to suffer. But in the end, He not only freed us from sin, He now sits at the right hand of His Father in Heave and has prepared a place for those of us who will walk by faith.
The difficult steps of faith did not stop with Jesus. Over and over we read in the NT how individuals struggled and were persecuted as they took steps of faith.
Paul – Many of us know what the Apostle Paul had to deal with as he carried out what Jesus assigned him to do. His walk of faith was filled with hardship and eventually led to death as he did his best to share the Gospel, and start new churches where ever he went. Read (2 Corinthians 11:23b-29) “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
Was it all worth to Paul, all the suffering? Later Paul wrote some amazing words from prison to those in Philippi. Listen to what He wrote: Read Phil. 3:4b-16 “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
All the suffering and hardship was all worth it to Paul.
How was Paul blessed. For one thing he began to see some of the fruit of his labor as churches began to spring up and all around the civilized world as a result of his teaching. But that was nothing compared to the heavenly blessing awaiting him. He knew that death had no hold on him.
Maybe right now you may be thinking that walking by faith, or even taking that next step is gonna be a struggle, even difficult; and you are probably right.As you see in these stories, God’s way isn’t always the easiest way. But we also see that when it is all said and done, in the end it will be worth it.
We may not see the reward right away, just like Noah and his family, Abraham and his family, and so many others who did not see the blessings right away that lay in store. But be sure of this, if you do something that God would have you do, or take a step He would have you take, even though it may seem real difficult at times, somewhere along the line He is going to bless and reward you for that step of faith. And you will positively know for sure it was all worth it in the end.
The next step you take for God may cost you a lot. A lot of work, a lot of time, maybe some grief from others, maybe personal discomfort, or even other unforeseen trials. But I say, trust God’s word that it will be worth it in the end!
Maybe God has been putting something on your heart lately:
– Maybe to absolutely honest at work when your boss says to fudge a little.
– Maybe God is even prompting you to step out and leave that job or even enter a new career because your present job’s unwholesome effect on you.
– Maybe God has put on your heart to keep asking certain people to Bible study or church because God knows where they are and what they need.
– Maybe the next step for you is to give up a bad habit that you’ve been feeling guilty about lately.
– Maybe God simply wants you to stop complaining and change your attitude.
I don’t think you can get around it. Somewhere along the line, there will be a next step and that next step of faith is going to cost you. It may be inconvenient, hard or even painful. But I think it’s absolutely necessary for us to recognize that if God has put something on our heart to do, there is probably a pretty good reason. (Now I am not talking about what we want, what we think, or what we personally feel we should do. Those things may be completely contrary to God’s will, and His word. If what you feel prompted to do it may be contrary to God’s word and it just may be of the devil) We are not talking about those things!
Don’t let the anticipation or fear of hardship deter you from taking that next step! Paul gave good advice for each of us when he said “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. …One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
So what are you going to do when God puts that next step right in front of you? My advise is that if it is from God, press forward, push those fears aside, trust that God has your back and that He will bless you in the end.
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
All comments can be emailed to: bfronzek@gmail.com