Catch me in my righteousness

It is inevitable we go through crisis and mess things up. The magnitude of the crisis and suffering varies from person to person. It moves you from abundance to scarcity most of the time. Everything that seemed so secure slowly disappears. You are confused and grope your way through the darkness unable to articulate. All the blessings that was at your arms reach are now fleeting. You battle in your mind to know if God even exists. You compare yourself to all the bad people enjoying the good things and so called “good” people who live their lives securely with hypocrisy and maliciousness. A sudden desperateness creeps in fearing that your righteousness has let you down. What do you do? cry out like Jeremiah, 'And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are.' Lamentations 3:17 AMPC. It is definitely not a bad idea to make Him know your despair. 

After battling with this myriad of emotions you muster the courage and start praying to God in darkness but you are faced with a deafening silence. Times like this you are tempted to measure your faithfulness to God with your ROI (return of investment) and get even more disappointed because you think your righteousness has not paid you with good returns and your lamenting resembles with that of Jeremiah, "Why has my pain been perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceptive stream with water that is unreliable? Jeremiah  15:18 NASB.

 You become a lunatic trying to survive in a bizarre way. The new journey finds you in a road of faltering, stumbling, mountain top experiences sometimes in extreme holiness and the next moment you find yourself in the deepest valley in a total mess. The precious learning is that the faith and the walk in Christ you had when you were living a secure life does not work here. You learn a completely different yet divine set of skills that takes you forward slowly. Then you pray and hope God blesses you before you become bad and mess up once again. In fact, you wish God notices when you live a righteous life and make things right by then. The moment we are less God conscious we mess up. 

In all my rantings above have you noticed that we have to work at being good.  We don't have to work at being bad.  Being bad comes naturally.  No one has ever taught us to do evil.  Why do they have to teach us to be good, if we are already good"?  Who is big enough to rescue our soul from our wretchedness and dichotomy, other than God. Therefore, it is absolutely fine to ask God to take notice of us and help us in our confused condition we are living in and make us strong.

God is trying to shake you up and strengthen you in His righteousness. The few messes cannot derail you. It is said "If you prefer error, truth will remain dormant.  But in the pursuit of truth, error is always a casualty, unless you want to hold both the true and false as true.". Whatever the reason is, the primary purpose is to slowly move you towards a strong learning to live and manage the situation in wantonness, despair, continual rejection, being humbled, confusion and you can go on naming all the desperate conditions you experience. Bishop T. D. Jakes in his book “God's provision for your every need” puts it this way "God brings us into the wilderness to perfect our faith. You cannot have all pleasure without pain, neither can you enjoy only good times without adversity. Your faith is perfected in the furnace of affliction and adversity.”.  It is said in Luke (22:39) "He went out and made his way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him". The following verses says Jesus went to pray when He had to face the trail and humiliation. What is your usual comfort spot when things aren't working your way. Is it the feet of the Lord or meeting a potential earthly source who can help you? Understand this "When God wants to educate a man He does not send to the school of graces but to the school of necessities". God will never let what you have lost so far be the best you have ever had. He is only in the process to make you stronger, harder, and consistent so that He can use you for a greater purpose. What you are going through is temporary. The Bible says "For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17 CSB.

Meet God when you aren't sure how long you would be able hold on to your righteousness, He will help you because He counts on you. God does not rely on cowards, hypocrites and people who use God for their survival openly or subtly. He intends taking you through this intense training for His divine purpose. You are marked, don't delay the process of complete submission because suffering and crisis are part of His divine plan. May God help you in your journey close to God.

Blessings,

David Raj
https://www.shefaservices-pune.com