The “Hard” Lie

But He (Jesus) said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

 

There are many little euphemisms that we use to describe what God does in and for us. “If God brings you to it He will bring you through it.” “What God ordains He will underwrite.” “God enables whom He calls.”  In the moment it is sometimes difficult to remember these.

There are also verses through which we can directly hear from the scripture that God will be our Help (John 14:260), our Provider (1 Corinthians 10:13) , and our Strength (Psalm 28:7) when we need Him.  And yet, it seems that every day I hear a Christian say that it is “really hard” to do what God tells us to do in the scriptures.  I find it hard myself sometimes.  But, is it really that hard?  

What I do not want to allow myself to do is to believe the lie that God expects too much of me or more than I can handle. He is a compassionate and just God. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that He is faithful and when we are tempted beyond our ability that “He will provide the way of escape.” I am afraid that for many of us the temptation is to believe that He is not all that He says He is.  

The most recent example of this was with an acquaintance who was saying it is hard to follow through when God asks her to speak the truth in love to those around her – mostly family.  She is learning that there are good ways and bad ways to approach the person but finds that she is usually so lost in her own emotion that she is afraid to speak.  

The lie seems to be that if I am emotional then I am unable to think. If we are emotional, can we pray?  I know this is an issue of training ourselves to think of the Lord in the moment, to get our minds off what is happening in front of us so we will ask the Lord to take over.  Too many of us seem to have this notion that God is sovereign when He sends sunshine, good times, and extra cash but somehow, that goes away when difficult circumstances hit us in the face and we need to act.  

What makes the Biblical response hard? What am I (and others) believing when I think it will be too hard?  In the fall I was in a meeting where people were saying things about someone else that were wrong. I thought the man leading the meeting should have stopped them. I wanted to get up and leave to make a point. Fear kept me glued to my seat and my mouth shut. I left there mad at myself! Fear of what? Certainly not the fear of God, who was more grieved than I was by what was being said.  

I needed to repent. The fear of man is sin. God is the only One we are to be afraid of.  In Matthew 10:28 Jesus tells us, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”  

Repentance requires a turning from sin. I could not stop at just confessing it to God so I went to the person who had been talking.  I was nervous about this, the man barely knew me. I did it one on one – not in public and told him what I had heard. He denied it but was apologetic that it sounded as it did to me. He was gracious and I was relieved that I had done what I needed to do before the Lord. For the record, I would not want to do it again!  

What I learned was that though this was not fun, it was not hard. I prayed, I asked God to give me the right words, and what I thought was going to be impossible became possible because of God. His Helper kept his promise to be there and remind me of the truths I know and gave me the strength to speak the truth. 

Philippians 2:13 says that it is God who works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. I am certain that my offense was because God was at work in me trying to move me to stand for Him and not fear man.  One of the lies I have believed is that it is important that people like me and not be angry with me. I was pretty sure it would make someone angry if I spoke up or walked out of the meeting!   

I do believe that God brought me to it and then, He brought me through it! Unfortunately, I did not respond immediately to His prompting in that meeting. I know He would have brought me through that as well.  

I haven’t been in another one of those meetings to know if the person is still saying the same kind of things – he’s probably happy about that!  But, I know that the next time the Lord prompts me I need to speak up, maybe with words, maybe with my feet. I pray now that I will know which one is His will and will work for His good pleasure.  

The lesson I learned from this experience is that it is not hard to do what God calls us to do because He will do it or He will provide all we need to do it for Him.