LIFE'S NOT FAIR
I just listened to last Sunday's sermon by Pastor Keith and he highlighted a video at the end, reminding me about who we are in Christ. Our identity is easy to lose sight of if we've been through hardships in this life. It can make us wonder what God's purpose for our life is.
We know by reading the scriptures God's original plan for us was all good, perfect. His perfect plan for us, our families and this earth was without suffering and pain. Satan and the poor free-will choices of mankind ruined that perfect plan, leaving us suffering.
A woman and I were recently chatting and she said of her recent hardships, "I feel like I've spent 25 years being punished for my husband's poor choices." It's not fair, but it's the hand this lady was dealt. She has nothing to do now but to walk it out with grace and patience. Hopefully, there will be restoration for her and her family on this side of Heaven. If not, I know there will be restoration on the other side of Heaven.
The Israelites, who Moses led out of captivity in Egypt in the book of Exodus, also knew what it was like to suffer because of someone else's poor choices. Sometimes we suffer because others made a poor choice, and it isn't fair. God never told us life would be fair. He said it would be filled with trouble.
I believe God looked at the damage done to our lives by poor choices, and He made a plan to redeem us. Jesus was and is that plan. Walking in Jesus' ways keeps us on the right path, giving us our best shot at restoration in this life.
INHERITANCE
When Jesus died on the cross for us, we received an inheritance as members of His family. This principle is the same when one of our loved ones passes away and leaves behind an inheritance for family members. The family members usually have a reading of a will, and receive all that person spent their life working for. When Jesus died for us, His last work and will was that we inherit everything Jesus has for us. This includes all authority in Heaven and on Earth. The more authority we learn to walk in, the more healthy our daily lives will be.
AMBASSADORSHIP
When Jesus gifts one of us with a specific calling, and we step into that calling, we become a type of ambassador, representing Him to the world. Ambassadors of the United States are those individuals who represent our government to other countries. If an ambassador were to be attacked at a United States embassy (housed in another country), then that attack on sovereign ground is taken very seriously. The United States would take that move as a terroristic attack, and respond harshly with its enemies, on behalf of the ambassador and the hallowed ground he/she walks on.
In the same way, if we are walking in holiness and in purpose, if we're attacked by Satan and his minions, then the armies of Heaven will come to our aid. And the hosts of Heaven will make sure we have all the provision we need. If we're currently living in lack, are we where we're supposed to be?
Ambassadorship is not a role to be taken lightly. With this role, the ambassador gets a portion of inheritance, including, but not limited to, health, financial provision and protection from enemies.
Prosperity and provision to accomplish said task comes only when we align ourselves with holiness. An ambassador is only protected inside the embassy for which he/she has been assigned.
If we step outside of the borders of our calling, or fall into sin away from the boundaries of holiness, then we risk losing our position as an ambassador. At the very least, we open ourselves up to enemy attack. If we step outside the protective walls of where we've been assigned, we can't get angry at God if mayhem follows.
God doesn't toss us away when we make mistakes, but there are consequences to be had. After someone begins suffering consequences, restoration can be quick, but it can also take decades. Sometimes we do everything right, but someone in our life makes a sinful choice, and because we're associated with that person, we're removed from our role as an ambassador. Remember, life isn't fair, and sometimes we suffer because of the poor choices of others.
Regardless of whether or not your current circumstance were caused by your poor choices, or someone else's, be reminded God is a loving God, and His plans are always to restore you. It was no accident Jesus chose the role of carpenter when he walked this earth. He loves to build and restore.
GOOD NEWS
Restoration isn't just a good thing, it's a God thing. God, in His infinite mercy, is and always will be a carpenter at heart. His will is to see us to avoid being chipped away too much by life, but of course we know this will happen. Thankfully, he also loves those pieces of character -- The ones who are re-sanded and repainted, who have stood the test of time, and realized their dependent need for a Master Restoration Expert.
RESTORATION
I recently heard a woman give a story of how she desperately wanted to have a family of her own. She said no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make it happen. She spent thirty years in desperate longing and loneliness. She finally met a wonderful man in her forties, but he didn't want to have a family. Two years later, he changed his mind and agreed to partner with her and build a life together. She finally had a daughter at the ripe old age of 47, and lived her dream for the next thirty years. She said, "There was no formula for my dreams coming true. I simply had to wait."
WAITING WELL
In some areas of my life, there is nothing I can do to make restoration happen. There is nothing I can do to make my dreams happen. I simply have to wait. But, I also have to wait well.
What does waiting well look like?
I don't get to use self-pity as an excuse to go do whatever I want while I wait
I don't get to use the excuse "well, God's not providing me with what I want/need" to go do whatever I want
Waiting well looks like seeking God's face, place, purpose and faithfully serving in that role until He says otherwise
Trusting in God's goodness is paramount
When we start wondering if God really has our best interests at heart, we blunder. When we step outside of His way of doing things, we always make a mess of things.
Jase Robertson of Louisiana's Duck Dynasty once said of him and his wife waiting until marriage to have sex, "There's God's way of doing things, then there's our way. His way is always better."
It is in the waiting Satan will always send a counterfeit dream, person, power or position that looks like everything you always wanted. He'll give you this tremendous gift, then destroy you when he snatches it away just as quickly. It's really important you surround yourselves with wise, godly people who can advise you on major life choices or moves. Left to your own devices, you'll may easily be fooled, convinced all the while you were doing the right thing.
WE DON'T GET TO CHOOSE
My last point: We don't get to choose how fast our restoration will take, or what the process will look like. Because God isn't a fair God. He is a just God, but He is not fair. We'll table that point for another day.
Elizabeth Elliot, one of my favorite Christian authors and pioneers, had to learn to wait well in life through some very unfair circumstances. If you've never read her books, I highly encourage it.
Elliot talked candidly in her book about waiting to marry her first husband, and how discouraged she was when God asked them to wait five years. She finally married Jim Elliot, a missionary, in 1953, only to have him be murdered by the very tribe people he was ministering to when their daughter was just 10-months-old. She was left as a single mother to the only child she would ever have, in a time when single mothers were not popular. HOW UNFAIR! But, instead of feeling sorry for herself, she and her daughter went to live with the very people who had murdered Jim, and led them all to the truth of Jesus Christ.
15+ years later she married Addison Leitch. Her daughter finally had a father figure in her life. He then died just 4 years later of cancer. HOW UNFAIR!
She waited another 4 years to marry again, this time to Lars Gren. She and Lars remained together until her passing in 2015.
I think about Elliot a lot when I'm going through my own seasons of waiting. My mother, who painstakingly homeschooled me and spent years teaching me how to read and spell, put Elliot's book, Through Gates of Splendor, in my hand when I was just a girl. I had undiagnosed dyslexia, and it was no easy feat to teach me to read! I'm so very thankful for the mother I had! Elliot's book is the first book I remember reading all the way through. Her perseverance stuck with me all these years. I guess God knew I was going to need it.
I wish I had waited better during my twenties and thirties. Most of my suffering was caused by the poor choices of others, but I also made a handful of foolish choices that came with unsavory consequences. I let my pain and impatience get the better of me. Nevertheless, with time and clarity I've come to realize these words for myself ...
“The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman.”
-- EE, Let Me Be A Woman
“I have one desire now - to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it.”
-- EE, Through Gates of Splendor
“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.”
-- EE, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control
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