Is Everything Going to be All Right?

Is everything going to be all right?

You must have faith to know this.  Faith can’t be stationary.  You can’t stop growing your faith when you are young because you know you believe.  The truth is, when you get older, you need more faith.  The stakes for everything are higher.  There is more to lose and no time to recover from a terrible mistake.  You are responsible for so much more, so every decision affects a lot more people.  Fear works so very hard to seep into every crack.  Only a faith that grows steadily will help you be able to sail confidently through those trials and temptations.

Is my faith growing today?  Do I have a faith journal to remind myself of the many, many times God has directly and purposefully answered prayers? 

Am I confident in God’s provision, come what may?  Sure, I am aware that bad things could and do happen to people with faith.  In fact, my faith may be why those things could happen to me.  No one wants to go through bad things, but that is fear.

So, is everything going to be all right?  Today?  Tomorrow?  Is it?  Do you or I have rest in our souls that everything is going to be all right because God lives today and forever and He has a place for us?

Until this faith is assured deep in our hearts and settled as a part of our soul, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find and live with hope, joy, and peace.

This great, old church hymn sums it up nicely.

It is Well With my Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

1. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
   It is well, it is well with my soul.
   
   
   Refrain:
   It is well with my soul,
   It is well, it is well with my soul.
   
   
   Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
   Let this blest assurance control,
   That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
   And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
   
   
   My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
   My sin, not in part but the whole,
   Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
   Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
   
   
   For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
   If Jordan above me shall roll,
   No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
   Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
   
   
   But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
   The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
   Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
   Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
   
   
   And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
   The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
   The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
   Even so, it is well with my soul.

Criminal Record vs Bad Credit Score

In a recent economic article entitled, Get Your Act Together, by Jared Dillian, he comments:

“There are two types of people with bad credit. People who are genuinely dirtbags who don’t pay back loans, and people who are just slobs. If you have a bad credit score, it is because you are a dirtbag or a slob. Generally speaking. …

“A credit score is a measure of your character. I’ll go further. A credit score says more about your character than, in many cases, a criminal record. A criminal record is a snapshot of your behavior at a brief moment in time. Sometimes good people break laws now and then.

“But a credit score isn’t a snapshot of your behavior at a moment in time. It establishes a pattern of behavior over years and years. There is a lot of data that goes into a credit score.

“I would rather date someone with a criminal record than a bad credit score.”

Now, I’m sure that statement has some qualifications based on what the criminal record actually was.  I doubt he would rather date an ax-murderer than a financial slob.

However, his point is incredibly valid.  In relationships, it is easier to be friends with someone who has failed and sincerely repented than be friends with someone who has a sloppy character and constantly has small failures but doesn’t get a handle on it. 

This comparison strikes so directly at the class conscious better-than-you church going Christian.  For me, that person so often compares directly to the financial slob described above.  They are full of what they consider small sins and they have no intention of pursuing a purer sanctification because what they do is so much better than others.  My experience is that this person is quick to complain when something isn’t done their way (or the way its always been done) and there personal witness is very weak.  So weak that I’ve often wanted to ask “Is that it?  You’ve been a Christian for decades and that’s all you’ve got?”  God should not seem a small thing when a Christian provides a testimony.

Then there is the sinner who did a most awful sin, became completely broken at the foot of Jesus, repented and has a changed character because of it.  This person carries a powerful witness and testimony.  They know Jesus can change a person and are willing, even eager, to share their story hoping that it will stop someone who may be on the wrongful path they took or lead someone to repentance.  They know they are a sinner like everyone else and can’t be pretentious.

Which one would you want to have as a friend?  Which Christian are you?

The Lord is My Need

Is the Lord your need?  Is the Lord all you need for fulfillment, purpose, and life?

²² Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!” – Lamentations 3:22-24

Is your only hope in God because He alone fills your soul?  Are you satisfied with God and nothing else?  Do you have hope for today?  It is found in the Lord when He is your fulfillment.

The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want. – Psalms 23:1

Where does your heart lie?  In the cares of this world or satisfied in communion with the one true living God?

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord. – Jeremiah 17:7

Do you want to live a blessed life?  Let go of yourself and stop being your own god!  Sacrifice all that you hold onto for security and embrace the Savior who reaches for you.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. – James 4:8

Deliberately move to the God who created you, mercifully saves you, and never stops loving you. 

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  – Jeremiah 29:13

There are no wrong steps in moving closer to God. 

Is God your need?

The Lord has suffered so much for me.

It is reported that the last words of Girolamo Savonarola, one of the first open reformers of the corrupt Catholic church, upon being executed in 1498 by the order of Pope Alexander VI were, “The Lord has suffered so much for me.”  He was hung and then burned.  His greatest crime was working for a reformation of the Church.  He opposed the severe declining of Biblical morality in society and saw the same societal morality in the Church.  Martin Luther considered Girolamo to be a martyr. 

Regardless of anything else that happened in his life, the last words are profound and we can apply them to our own life.

We live in a society that preaches “Me, me, me, it’s all about me.  What should I do to make me happy?”  This doesn’t seem to be different than any society of any other time.  It is the condition of man who has wanted to be god from the beginning.  The questions today are: 

• Who is it that preaches sin and repentance?  
• Who is willing to accept God’s leading and be willing to follow obedience to God’s authority? 
• Where is the conviction of sin in men and women today?

Is our generation so gutless that they are unwilling to suffer rejection or discomfort for the sake of standing on the written Word of God?  The only answer is a resounding YES!  Most who claim to follow Christ (calling themselves Christian) reject His Word for their own pleasures, to do what they want to do so they can be “happy” according to their terms.  Where is the one who will stand unapologetically on faith in the one true living God and His Word?  Where is the one who is wiling to suffer in taking such a stand?

Compared to the man who was about to be hung and burned and said, “The Lord has suffered so much for me”, in great humility and thankfulness, we are the softest bunch of pansy Christians that must have ever been gifted with life.