“Wow. That sounds kind of basic.”
Does it?
Israel will question this again and again and again…
And, in my 20+ years of full time pastoral ministry, I’ve seen us question this over and over again as well.
When you’re struggling - and sometimes failing -
to overcome alcohol addiction, or a porn compulsion…
do you believe that God is for you
or do you feel like God is mad at you?
When you’re in the midst of grief,
or you’re struggling to overcome deep disappointment or painful loss,
is it easy to believe God is for you
or do you actually feel like God is against you?
Recently I met with someone who shared that the actions of Christians had
not only shaken their trust in the church,
but had led them to question the very character of God.
Is God good? Is God for us?
The loss of a loved one often sends people into a similar wilderness.
The apparent failure of a dream does the same.
Believing God is for you may sound basic or even trite,
but if you’re in pain you almost certainly know
at least the temptation to believe he is not.
The Exodus story is about God setting slaves free. But then these freed slaves struggle to believe that God is for them. Their trust in God’s goodness is fragile.
They are quick to question
God’s character,
God’s motives,
God’s methods.
They are quick to hit the “eject button” and
rely on their own instincts,
their own desires,
their own “wisdom.”
Over and over again they choose self preservation over trust in God which implies that they don’t actually believe that God is for them.
Believe it. God is for you. God is not against you.
In your struggle to be free, to be whole, believe God is for you. He is on your side,
he is pulling for you, blocking for you, cheering for you…
God is for you.
Comments