For those of you that know me, you know that I currently my heart is heavy and that my soul is deeply burdened. I have never gone through a situation in my life where I have received so much counsel, and I have definitely never gone through a situation where I have received so much opposing counsel. It is a difficult predicament to be in, but I know that God is good and that His ways are above mine and that I must seek after His ways. I want to share with you all the very difficult lesson that I have been learning lately because I think it is something the people of God need dearly to take to heart.
When I study Scripture, I do not see a comprehensive manual that tells us how to make every single decision in our lives. For example, when I decided to become an English major and switch from engineering I did not just flip to 2 Thessalonians and see the answer clearly written. But when I study Scripture what I do see is a story of redemption about God, His glory, and His people. I see a book that teaches us about who God is, who we were, and who we now are in Christ; and it is based on who we now are in Christ that I see Scripture call us to live differently. Our new identities should look different from the old. Our speech should be different, our passions different, and our end purpose different. Ultimately, what I see in Scripture is a story that is not mainly about us, it is a story firstly about God and His majesty and glory. So we as Christians are called to apply all of these new truths about our identity, calling, and purpose in our everyday lives in a way that is biblical and unique to our individual talents.
On the contrary, when I look to the world for counsel, I do not see a lot of diversity. The mantra of our day and age seems to be "Do whatever makes you happy." It is a rooted in a deep-seated selfishness born of the flesh. What makes this even worse is that I see people in the church try to take this mantra and fit it into the Christian worldview. By doing such things, they create promises that are not in Scripture by twisting the Word and they pave a well-intentioned road to Hell. I do not see written anywhere in Scripture the promise "God wants you Christian to be happy above all things." This statement and this ideology is garbage not Gospel. It is trash and idolatry. It lifts up our personal wants and desires over the desires of our Holy creator God. In fact, I see a lot of stuff that would contradict that particular promise. Not that I believe God wants us to be miserable. The key text I prefaced this entry with makes clear that we were created through Jesus and for Jesus. We are not our own.
I do not write this to condemn Christian brothers and sisters, but I write this to urge us all to reexamine our view of this one essential question, "What is our purpose?" Many Christians have made God's purposes primarily about them and created a new theology all about God's plan ultimately being about their happiness, and they have created a new question we must ask, "Does God want me to be happy?" The bottom line is I believe this to be a misguided question, and a misguided way of thinking. The Church as a whole needs to work to align their teaching and counsel with Scripture, and that is the intent of this blog entry. My goal is that we would refocus our gaze upon Jesus and set our eyes upon the things above and not the things below.
John 16:33 "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
1 Corinthians 15:19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Jesus acknowledges that we will encounter sufferings and tribulation, and Paul says if Jesus was not really resurrected that people should pity us. When I think about someone to be pitied, I do not think of someone whose life I would define as happy. I do not believe at all that God wants us to be miserable, but I believe it is very clear in Scripture that God does not make our happiness His highest order of business. Understanding these two texts is essential to reclaiming a biblical understanding of our purpose as Christians. God could have removed the devil from the world and all suffering with the arrival of Jesus, but He chose not to do so. God chose and chooses to use our weaknesses and sufferings to make His name great. We see this reiterated all throughout Scripture, and we do not need to look any further then the life of Paul and thorn in his flesh from 2 Corinthians 12. Jesus tells Paul these very words, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul responds by saying he is content with weakness, hardship, and a list of other things we would not associate with happiness. How can all of this be if God is primarily concerned with my happiness?
I think part of what makes this lesson so difficult to grasp is that it is so hard for us to understand that God is not obligated to act how we want Him to act. We want to be happy, so we assume God wants the same. But in reality, we should be looking to the Scriptures and seeing what God's desires our so that we can mold our desires after His instead of vice versa. In John 17, we have a recorded prayer of Jesus that explicitly states part of Jesus' desire for Christians and Christians-to-be. I think it is a very beneficial spiritual exercise to study this High Priestly Prayer in John 17 so that we can mold our desires to the desires of Jesus.
John 17:20-26 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
I think this passage of the prayer makes clear at least three things Jesus desires. 1) Jesus desires for believers to have a relationship modeled after his relationship with the Father. 2) Jesus desires this so that the world would believe in him and his Father. 3) Jesus desires us to see him in the fullness of his glory. The only one of these three desires that is remotely about happiness is the third desire, and it is something that transcends way beyond happiness and is better defined by joy. The Bible teaches pretty clearly from the Old Testament on that looking upon the glory of God transforms us more into the image of God, so if we are eternally before the glory of God we will be eternally transformed (2 Cor. 4:18). Jesus desires for us to see him in his glory, so that we can worship him perfectly and in doing so also be perfected by his glory.
God's ultimate desire is for us to glorify Him by becoming more like His Son. For us to become more like Jesus, it is inevitable that we go through fierce trials and tribulations. And no matter how fierce our sufferings are it does not negate God's goodness or His love for us. Just look at the life of Job if you need reassurance. I can pretty much guarantee that none of us have gone through as many trials in such a short amount of time as Job did.
As Christians the only way we can suffer like Job, is to set our mind on the things that are above and to understand that our citizenship is not in this world. We do not live for the treasures of this world, but by faith we live for the assured and unshakeable promises of the next world. We have to learn like Moses to count the reproach of Christ greater than the treasure of this world. We must be content with going outside the gates of the city to face the reproach because we know we have something greater that no one can take away from us. To live a life like Moses, we must be Scripturally grounded and spiritually disciplined. I encourage you to read all of Hebrews 11 and see just how the writer of Hebrews describes all those heroes of faith. Peter has already told us in his second letter that we have everything we need that pertains to a life and godliness as Christians through the knowledge of Christ, so why are we not living in such a way?
Jesus said he came to bring us life that we may have it abundantly, but the problem as Christians is that we do not know what that abundant life is. It is not a life defined by happiness, success, money, and fame. It is a spiritual and eternal life that is grounded in an invisible kingdom. It is a life focused on bringing God glory, and bringing that invisible kingdom to this visible world. We must understand that this abundant life is not primarily about us, but that is primarily about God and His glory. As we pursue God's glory, which is our highest calling, we are transformed more into His image and we experience a joy that this world cannot comprehend or take away from us. As this process unfolds, we learn to say with Paul that sufferings of this world are just light and momentary because we are focused on the joy of the next.
Hebrews tells us Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:1-2). Jesus endured death on the cross for joy. Death on a cross is not a happy thing. If God did not spare His only begotten Son from sufferings, what makes us think that God only desires happiness for us? We are limiting the joy of God when we forfeit pursuing God's glory to pursue the temporal happiness of this world. We must not be too easily pleased, as C.S. Lewis states, with the things this world has to offer. Our purpose is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. It can only be understood in submission to God, and not the other way around. Our desires do not dictate God's behavior. We must pray to God that we can learn to treasure His joy and glory. above all things.
The Christian life is difficult because we are not given a road map that tells us every little decision to make, but we are given enough to life of godliness as Peter states. Ultimately, our decisions should be about doing whatever brings God the most glory and not about whatever brings us the most happiness because in the end God's glory is eternal and our happiness is not. We were created by God and for God, so it flows from that our chief purpose is to glorify Him who created and saved us. God will have His glory. Will we be with Him when it is revealed?
I'm not saying that this is easy, or that I have it all figured out. What I am saying is that our desires need to be God's desires, and the only way we know and learn God's desires is to study His Word. We can never have a high enough view of Scripture or a high enough view of God. I say these things all the time because I forget them just as easily as the next person, but we cannot let this discourage us. Our hearts are prone to wander and deceitful, but we must be obedient and see that our hearts find their rest in God alone.
Philippians 2:9-11 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
If we will delight ourselves in God, the desires of our heart will be God's desires. Let this verse and simple truth be our prayer. That we would learn to delight in God, and that we would learn to love and desire what He loves and desires.
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