PATIENCE IN HURDLES AND OBSTACLES

                                     PATIENCE IN HURDLES AND OBSTACLES

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; 'tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." John Newton

"Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

SO WHAT ARE SOME CONCERNS?

LONG PERIODS OF SUCCESS AND EASE

OBEDIENT IN FAITH

THE TEST OF OUR UNTRUSTWORTHY HEARTS

VEERING OFF COURSE:

TRUSTING TRADITIONS AND ROUTINES

MISTAKING WORKS FOR LOVING GOD

HOPE/EXPECTATIONS DEFERRED 

FAITH IN PEOPLE AND THINGS

SO WHAT ARE SOME CONCERNS?

LONG PERIODS OF SUCCESS AND EASE

  As far as healthy productivity of any kind goes, we humans do not tend to do well with extensive success and ease.

 "When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you forget not the Lord your God in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you this day. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and dwelt therein; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all the you have is multiplied; then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Deuteronomy 8:10-14 

We must persistently embrace the lifelong pursuit of faith in Christ. Like Jesus said, "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'" Luke 25:23

  In the journey of life, blending the pursuit of our faith in Jesus Christ into the natural cares, interests, and duties of life is not always easy. If we lose the focus of our faith or drift from our pursuit of Jesus, we can become gradually or quickly overwhelmed by the natural, physical world. The danger is that the invisible and eternal things of Almighty God can become increasingly obscure and seemingly irrelevant to our life's perspective. Unbelief can slip in. That is a recipe for disaster. Don't forget, all along the way the devil will throw in every possible excuse, offense, fear, doubt, and distraction to cement our waywardness in his attempt to destroy us. The Lord is more than able to hold us up as we keep our faith in Him.

 King Asa had a great start. "Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God...Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign", 2 Chronicles 14:2,15:17,19. During the early years of his reign, Israel faced an overwhelming army, which they defeated because he fully trusted in the Lord his God. However, in the thirty-sixth year, when threatened again, he sought help from an outside force instead of trusting the Lord. When he was rebuked by a prophet of God, he became angry and imprisoned him. He also began to oppress some of the people. Later on, before he died, he became ill in his feet, but again did not seek the Lord. (2 Chronicles 16). What happened? During his younger years, he diligently sought the Lord, but over time, and perhaps because of ease and success, he drifted away (possibly unwittingly) from complete dependancy/faith in God. Dear friends, how we pursue Jesus in the beginning of our walk with Him should be no less diligent in the end. If anything, our diligence should increase. "But we all, with open (unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."             2 Corinthians 3:18. May the Lord have mercy and we be persistent!

 Years ago, when I was a young man and a new believer, I met an old man who, along with his brothers, was involved in the Historical Welsh Revival. As he recounted to me some of the amazing events and miracles, he also stated that along the way he simply lost interest and walked away to pursue worldly entertainment. He went on to say that now, at the end of his life, "I can't find Him." He added that the minister had warned him to stay faithful. I did not know how to answer him at the time, but I felt sad and very concerned.

OBEDIENT IN FAITH

  But what if we are weak, confused, struggling? How can we be safe?    The answer is the same. Keep trusting, waiting on, and believing in Jesus, who is our Strength, and He will safely guide us through. Look at what the apostle Paul said. "For we would not,  brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead." 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. "Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You. The desire of our soul is to Your name, and to the remembrance of You." Isaiah 26:8. So how do we wait for the Lord? By keeping His Word even when He seems nowhere to be found, and keeping our trust in Him.                                                                                                           King Saul, whose army was gripped by fear, poorly equipped, and severely outnumbered in a deadly conflict with the Philistines, gave in to desperation and made a bad choice. Samuel the prophet, who was his spiritual guide and advisor, was seven days late. In desperation, Saul gave in to panic and broke a commandment of God by offering a burnt offering, which was something that only the priests were allowed to do. This was the beginning of his downfall as king of Israel. "And Samuel said to Saul, 'You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now would the Lord have established your kingdom upon Israel forever.'" 1 Samuel 13:13  Hasty decisions out of fear, doubt, or unbelief will bring failure. PATIENCE IS A CRITICAL PART OF FAITH. Faith and patience are an inseparable unit.  "For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise." Hebrews 10:36. "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matthew 24:13. Dear friends, when things do not turn out the way we expect while trusting in the Lord, we must remain faithful to His Word and be careful not to resort to doing things our way or presumptuously taking matters into our own hands like Abraham and Sarah did with the issue of Hagar. Nor should we CHANGE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE TO FIT OUR LIFE'S EXPERIENCE!!! "Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from My hand: you will lie down in torment." Isaiah 50:10-11. REGRET is a byproduct of bad decisions. If, while waiting for the Lord, you get no direction from the Lord, hold your ground. Typically, that means you are in a safe place before Him, unless, of course, you had ignored a previous warning sign.  "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Psalm 27:14 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

 THE TEST OF OUR UNTRUSTWORTHY HEARTS

"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins(mind), even to give every man according to his ways, and according to his doings." Jeremiah 17:9-10

 But the Lord says He will try our hearts; how can we trust ourselves? We had better not trust ourselves: "He that trusts in his own heart is a fool." Proverbs 28:26 So then, what do we do? We choose to obey His Word, regardless of how we feel, and humbly trust in His mercy and grace to keep us on track. Dear friends, we must be careful and sensitive to correct, and diligent to repent of attitudes, behaviors, and motives that are contrary to the Word of God and the character and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can be certain that the Holy Spirit will bring things to the forefront to keep us from error.  King Hezekiah, who walked perfectly before the Lord all his life, was tested by the Lord in his latter days. "...and Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, that He might know all that was in his heart."2 Chronicles 32:30-31. This incident occurred after the Lord humbled him for his pride      (2 Chronicles 32:25). In his life, Hezekiah experienced great success and prosperity. Later on, they were delivered from the powerful Assyrian army, and afterwards he experienced a miraculous healing. Everything looked good, but apparently there was something he was still hanging on to. Whatever we have not dealt with, expect it to crop up again. Hezekiah maintained an excellent walk with the Lord most of his life, but pride seemed to have snuck in through the back door. That is a danger for most of us. Although at the time he was walking with the Lord, he was careless and presumptuous (both are attributes of foolishness and pride), and he thereby made Judah a target for the Chaldeans. We can be sure that whatever we earnestly do not deal with and submit to the Lord will bring us harm in the end, and you can be certain that the Lord had somehow notified us ahead of time, and likely more than once. In Proverbs 4:23, the Lord admonishes us that it is our responsibility to housekeep our untrustworthy hearts. Look, if you have a house that is filthy and cluttered, clean it up! Maybe the building has issues, but the filth and clutter are mobile, and that is something we can do something about. What do I mean? Repent of your agreements with any lying, greed, lusts, pride, hate, apathy... These have no place in a life of faith and have been defeated in Christ. That is where we need to abide. 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

VEERING OFF COURSE

TRUSTING TRADITIONS AND ROUTINES

  "This people draw nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:8-9

  Keep your focus on the purpose more than the activity: An easy trap for us to fall into that will steer us off course in our walk with the Lord is an excessive dependency on traditions and routines. Now, I am addressing those who know Jesus and are walking with Him. Traditions and routines may be harmless and, to some extent, very useful. But if we are not careful, we can easily default to them as a shortcut, thinking we are doing our duty of faith, without realizing that our hearts are drifting from that very personal and necessary pursuit of Christ Himself. The traditions and routines may be all about Him, yet our hearts may actually be preoccupied with other things in the meantime (valid or invalid). Even if they are godly things, they may not necessarily be in pursuit of the Lord Himself. Without the proper focus and purpose, our efforts can thus be rendered superficial. You must realize that we are creatures of habit, and we can program ourselves into activities to the point that we can carry them out without needing to put our hearts and minds into them to keep them going. That includes prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance. We must never lose sight that the actual Treasure at the heart of the forgiveness of sin, the hope of the resurrection, and eternal life is obtaining the matchless prize of being reconciled unto a holy and intimate relationship with God our Heavenly Father through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The religious leaders of His day blindly struggled with this deception, thinking that by doing all these rituals and duties, they were drawing close to God. Dear friends, we all know that close relationships must be worked on and pursued constantly. There is no place for us being lethargic or lazy, or we soon begin to drift apart. If we notice that we are self-confident, unconcerned, unsatisfied, or even bored, then it is time to break up the fallow ground and undistractedly and wholeheartedly seek the Lord afresh. Hosea 10:12

 MISTAKING WORKS FOR LOVING GOD

  In the early days of my service to the Lord, I was gung-ho, intense, and determined to work as hard as I could to reach people for Christ and help advance the Kingdom of God (and hopefully I still am, but...). I intentionally removed from my life whatever I considered an obstacle to my objective. One day a guy of about my age came to the church fellowship. If I recall, he was a professing believer, but I felt he needed to get serious with the Lord. He asked if I would go hunting with him. I like hunting, but I was reluctant to 'waste the time.' However, I figured it would give me a chance to help turn him around to get more serious about serving Jesus the way I thought he should. So I went along, and when I found out that he was only looking for a friend, I felt he was wasting my time. In response, I walked away from him. He left the church, and I never saw nor heard from him again. And what is worse, nor did I care. This is not the only time I did that. And we sometimes wonder why Jesus can seem to be so austere about our behavior.  "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write:... I know your works, and your labour, and your patience, and how you can not bear them which are evil: and you have tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them to be liars: and have borne, and have patience, and for My name's sake have laboured, and have not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place, except you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of  the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." Revelation 2:1-5

 How we treat others is a reflection of how we love God. "And the King shall answer and say unto them, 'Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40

  It is wonderful to serve the Lord and attempt all kinds of projects for His glory, and so it should be. But the heart of all service for Jesus is LOVE. Love for Him expressed in His love for the people we are in contact with and trying to reach. Believe it or not, it is easy to put the cart before the horse. We can put the project before the person, as I had done. In so doing, people are overlooked, needs are ignored, patience and mercy are short and metered out in tiny, dutiful increments, and love of Jesus is no longer visible through our actions or the lack thereof. If that is you, REPENT! Over the years I have seen people thoughtlessly wounded, offended, crushed, and even driven away through church activities and projects, but mind you, it was all for the glory of God and His Kingdom. Dear friends, have we lost the fear of God and the love of Jesus?!? Look at this statement of Jesus against the Scribes and Pharisees, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." Matthew 23:15 Do we love the things we are doing in the name of Christ more than the people we are serving in His name? Have we not then left our first love? In this race of endurance, what we absolutely must retain is our "...faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

HOPE/EXPECTATIONS DEFERRED 

 "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12

  In our walk of faith, we must keep it simple and ensure our hope is focused only on our Lord Jesus Christ. Life can blindside us with heavy and harsh disappointments, but He is our Sure and Unmoveable Rock on which we stand, and in Him we shall not be shaken! "The Lord is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my Strength, in whom I will trust; my Buckler and the Horn of my salvation, and my High Tower." Psalm 18:2.

 There are many things in life that can grab our attention and affections, even desires that are godly and upright. Not all things that we hope for and appreciate in life are bad or wrong, but the solid footing of our faith and the focus of our hope and love must never shift from Christ no matter the outcome. Consider Abraham in Genesis 22. God had promised him an offspring with a timeless and borderless blessing attached, and Abraham loved Isaac, his promised child. But when God put him to the test to sacrifice him, he showed no hesitation, because his faith and hope were in God alone, and he knew that he could trust God with that which was dearest to him no matter what. What an amazing example for us! When things do not work out the way we expected, believed it should, or had hoped, how do or will we react? Do we stop believing, trusting, hoping? Do we change our beliefs? Let's look at those saints who went before us: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on Earth." Hebrews 11:13.  Consider the resolve of Job, who, while going through brutal suffering and hardship, said, "...shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil/adversity?" "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him..." Job 2:10, 13:15. Remember that God's plan is infinitely larger than us and our lives, yet we fit into it perfectly. So we have need of patience and to trust Him. "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

FAITH IN PEOPLE AND THINGS

"Arise and depart; for this is not your rest, because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction." Micah 2:10

  This last one I want to address is a caution for any of us who place too much trust, hope, or confidence in people or things. We all know the fallibility of all human effort, and not just our own. Mind you, it might be well-meaning, and the fault might be in our own presumption and not theirs (the Lord knows). Or it may have had a good beginning, but has been taken too far and has become an idol, at least to us as individuals. What I am referring to are doctrines and teachings where the focus drifts from the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to charismatic preachers and leaders, organizations, social ideals, governments, and even science, or what some people call science, and we run with it, and lose the focus on our faith and hope in Jesus Christ alone. What seems to be a safe zone can become our destruction. Dear friends, let's keep our faith, hope, and love simple, like the typical answer we get from Sunday School children - 'JESUS.' He is the only real Hope and final Answer. He loves us so much!

 "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matthew 24:13