THE WAY I GROW

There's a guy I know, and I love him dearly, but he won't sing the words to Blessed Be the Name of the Lord right when we sing it in church. He won't sing "He gives and takes away." He changes it to "He gives and keeps on giving."

I know I'm super-sensitive about it, but deliberately singing that phrase (and I admit it wasn't easy) started me on my way to healing, and it'll always be very meaningful to me. God DOES take away, and I feel like telling this sweet friend, "Get ready!" I guess God hasn't taken away anything important to him yet. I hope he can handle it when it happens.

John Fischer says it's in the fine print--

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT)

These verses are what I call the fine print of the Christian life. When you sign up, you sign up for this, but unfortunately, not too many people read that far into the contract, and not enough leaders point it out. So when bad things start happening to us, we think something went wrong with our faith. Not necessarily. In fact, it’s an honor to think that your faith is worthy of being tested.

It’s a reverse spiritual principle that nonetheless is true: We get beaten down so that Christ might rise in us. It’s the whole idea God has of avoiding confusion. See, he doesn’t want people confusing human power and achievement with his power and what he is achieving in and through our lives. If all Christians were super-Christians, people would be impressed with them. As it is, God wants people to be surprised at us, not so much impressed – surprised that we can keep on believing, given what has happened to us. Surprised at us – impressed with God. That’s the way it should go.

Paul wrote in the passage above that troubles, confusions, knock-downs, and drag-outs are all to be expected in a life of faith, and are what will actually release the power of God in our lives. We encounter death-like experiences so that Christ’s life-like nature may clearly be seen in us, despite what is happening.

This is God’s strategy for ministry through us. There is no other way for it to be done. His strategy is his power and strength through our weakness – his life through our death. This doesn’t just happen to some Christians; it happens to us all if we desire to be effective in our faith.

I've been wondering lately...do we ever really grow when we're NOT going through hard things? I know that's when I seem to have MY growth spurts...