There have only been a few significant events in my life.\u00a0 I don’t remember the day I was born yet that would be one of them.\u00a0 But I vividly remember the day I was born again.\u00a0 And I remember my wedding day.\u00a0 There’s one other significant event that like to tell you about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was first born again, one of my prayers was that God would give me gentle lessons.\u00a0 I was such a wimp.\u00a0 I felt like I had enough hard knocks in life.\u00a0 They were of course, a result of my own sin, but I was bruised, and I wanted to be left alone to heal.\u00a0 God answered my prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had been a Christian about a year.\u00a0 I still smoked cigarettes, I still lacked victory over many sins, and I was extremely frustrated as a Christian.\u00a0 I read and understood God’s word.\u00a0 I had faith that God would give me rest from my enemies, victory over sin, the abundant life, peace and joy.\u00a0 But so many things were not right.\u00a0 I cried out to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was driving home from work frustrated, even a little angry. But I prayed hard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I demanded an answer, “Why aren’t I growing as a Christian!<\/em><\/strong>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a still, small voice God answered.\u00a0 “Because you prayed for gentle lessons.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I started to cry hard.<\/em> I cried so hard that I couldn’t see to drive due to the tears. I had to pull the car over. I wept; I prayed; and I cried out to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I wept with a combination of remorse and fear.\u00a0 I felt remorse over the wasted years, my foolish prayer, my offense towards God, my fearful and selfish attitude.\u00a0 And I felt fear because I knew what I had to do.\u00a0 I had to trust God. I had to allow him to do whatever’s necessary so that I may grow in Christ.\u00a0 I was genuinely scared.\u00a0 But I wanted to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sitting in the car, my eyes swollen with tears, I prayed.\u00a0 “Forgive me for not trusting you.\u00a0 I want to grow as a Christian.\u00a0 I completely remove my request for gentle lessons and now ask that you would do whatever necessary that I may grow.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew that that was the right thing to do, the right prayer, and that I could trust God.\u00a0 I was both scared and excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was surprised at the response.\u00a0 God answered both prayers.\u00a0 He did cause me to grow and he did it through gentle lessons.\u00a0 My faith increased, my sin is decreased, and I was satisfied to be in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In first Samuel Chapter 22, shortly before King David died, he sang to the Lord.\u00a0 In versus 26 to 28 he makes a comparison it finishes like this: “You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, I see that I was not growing as a Christian for two primary reasons.\u00a0 First of all, I didn’t trust God enough.\u00a0 And second, I was very proud and wanted to do things myself.\u00a0 I wanted control.\u00a0 But Jesus is both Savior and Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I once worked on a military base.\u00a0 Above the entrance was a phrase written, (I was told), in Latin.\u00a0 When I asked what it meant, my friend smiled.\u00a0 This is one of the best facilities in the country.\u00a0 The people here are very proud.\u00a0 They wanted to convey that fact by the phrase, “It’s hard to be humble.”\u00a0 They had someone translated it into Latin.\u00a0 And that is what is what you see written above the entrance.\u00a0 However, the translation wasn’t exactly correct.\u00a0 What it actually says is, “It is difficult to submit.” \u00a0 …Indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philippians Chapter 2 is one of my favorites.\u00a0 It speaks of humility and obedience.\u00a0 It is indeed hard to be humble but not because we are so good but because we are so proud.\u00a0 And it is difficult to submit.\u00a0 But I believe that our growth in Christ depends on trusting God and obeying him.\u00a0 He is the good and gentle Shepherd.\u00a0 And we must learn to trust him even the most difficult of circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve always hated pain.\u00a0 But now I must endure pain every day.\u00a0 I cannot call this a gentle lesson. But God has showed Himself completely faithful\u00a0and so perfectly loving for so very many years that I trust him completely even though I don’t understand my circumstances.\u00a0 It just doesn’t matter.\u00a0 Even when my pain is severe, it cannot compare to God’s glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve been asked several times if I think that growth only comes through difficult circumstances.\u00a0 I don’t know, but I won’t put God in any kind of box. \u00a0In other words, God can cause growth any way he wants.\u00a0 The phrase, “no pain, no gain” may be true.\u00a0 But then there is another phrase, “His pain, your gain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think there is a potential for growth or<\/em> bitterness because of difficult circumstances.\u00a0 One can become angry and bitter and even\u00a0give up on God.\u00a0 But the Bible says, “delight yourself in the Lord.”\u00a0 And “though Heaven and Earth shall passed away God’s Word will not pass away.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”\u00a0Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”<\/em>\u00a0 (John 6:60-61, 68-69) Where else can I turn? God alone has the Words of Eternal Life. I believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember when you have difficult circumstances of God’s Word, His promise expressed in Romans 8:38-39:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There have only been a few significant events in my life.\u00a0 I don’t remember the day I was born yet that would be one of them.\u00a0 But I vividly remember the day I was born again.\u00a0 And I remember my wedding day.\u00a0 There’s one other significant event that like to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}