Tag: Perseverance

Four Attitudes that Empower us to make it Through a Trial with our Faith Intact-

Lisa M. PriceLeave a comment

The testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing- James 1:3-4 NASB

Perseverance.

It can be defined as the choice to keep on keeping on inspire of the ugliness of life. Perseverance is from a spiritual perspective choosing faith even when faith makes no sense. It’s enduring the tough stuff of life regardless of how tough things get.

 Perseverance is good. However, it’s never easy. That’s why it’s called perseverance.

Sigh.

Some of the hard things we might have to persevere through in this life are what I call “life in a fallen world” kinds of things. These are painful but random events we all experience at some point in our lives. Terrible things like cancer, the death of a spouse, friend or child, accidents or financial calamities. Unfortunately, most of us also deal with “people are terrible” sorts of experiences like religious persecution, being cheated on, being lied to or about, or being treated indifferently or with disdain by people who ought to care about our feelings as well.

Hard things naturally (and understandably) cause people to doubt the goodness, faithfulness and sometimes even the very existence of God. It is true: pain and difficulty can drive us towards God. However, hurt, confusion and struggle can also drive us away from God as well. The effect suffering has on us depends entirely on how we choose to respond to the painful circumstances of life (1st Peter 15-6).  The good new is there really are actions we can take and attitudes we can adopt in the midst of our pain that will bring spiritual blessings that ensure the pain, grief, trials, we experience make us better and more godly as opposed to bitter and more miserable.

Following are four of them:

Don’t blame God for the actions of people-

By far, the worst and most excruciating pain in life comes when we’re victimized or mistreated by people.  The pain of personal betrayal is compounded a million times over if the person who hurt us is a Christian. Sadly, it’s impossible to avoid being hurt by people because people, even Christian people, are at their core sinful and broken. For whatever reason, most of us lay the blame squarely on God when people hurt us. This is a huge tactical error. It is critical we understand humans have free will and can do whatever they choose to do with their free will. They can even be horrible, sinful, disgusting people if they want to. It doesn’t mean God approves of their actions or that there won’t be a price to be paid for their choices. It just means God will not force anyone to be nice, honest, or decent. That being said, the biggest problem with blaming God for the actions of people is we deny ourselves access to the only one who can give us comfort, peace and the power to persevere through whatever horrible thing we are dealing with (Psalm 23:4, Psalm 86:17, 2nd Corinthians 1:3). Sigh. 

Take the long view-

The apostle Paul lived most of his Christian life in what most of us would consider absolutely unacceptable conditions (2nd Corinthians 11:21-29).  Everyone hated him. The Jews hated him. The Romans hated him. The Greeks hated him. Sometimes even other Christians hated him (Galatians 4:16-18).  Paul went hungry, spent time in prison, was beaten, stoned and betrayed by people who claimed to be his friends (2nd Timothy 4:14). Nevertheless, none of the injustice he endured appears to have affected his faith because he was able to view all of these situations as temporary problems that would be righted by God at some point in the future. He believed with all his heart his trials were actually preparing him for future ministry and making him more fit to spend eternity with God (2ndCorinthians 4:17, 1st Thessalonians 3:2-3). One “key” to persevering and enduring through pain is to make the choice to believe pain that is stewarded well will make us better, wiser, more insightful and more like Jesus. 

Know that Jesus gets “it”- 

He does. Whatever “it” is. Jesus gets it. I promise. Jesus experienced what we experience. He knows exactly what temptation, betrayal, loss, loneliness, hurt feelings and personal pain feels like (Hebrews 4:15). This makes Jesus the perfect one to run to anytime the heaviness of life becomes too much too bear (2ndCorinthians 1:5). 

Don’t let yourself get hung up on the issue of fairness- 

Getting hung up on what’s fair or unfair in this life will literally drive even a healthy believer to the brink of insanity. Life, at least, in the present, is not fair. People “get away” with horrible, sinful, unacceptable stuff all the time. If we choose to focus on what kind of punishment people are getting right now, we will lose our faith and our minds in that order. Instead of focusing on what’s fair and unfair, God wants us to believe in Him and trust that He will make things right and just in His good time. Anytime we’re hurt we have to remember the Bible is clear: NOTHING is in all of creation hidden from God and there is nothing that will not be publicly disclosed (Matthew 10:26, Hebrews 4:13). Sin that is unrepented of will be made public and punished in time. Period. 

Ultimately, choosing to persevere through the pain of life means clinging to our faith and choosing to tenaciously love God no matter what goes wrong or who hurts us. Faithful endurance through hurt, loss or persecution is the hard route but God promises rich rewards for those who choose it. 

How did Early Christians Thrive Under Horrible Leadership?

Lisa M. PriceLeave a comment

 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone- Titus 3:1-2 NIV

Bad leadership is not a twenty-first century invention.

A broken world breeds autocratic, egocentric, prideful leaders in every sphere of life. God’s people have seldom been exempted from the curse of awful leadership.

The Hebrews were brutally enslaved by the Egyptians for centuries before God miraculously liberated them from bondage. David, prior to his ascension to the throne endured decades of harassment and abuse and more than one murder attempt at the hands of the authority in his life: Saul. Early Christians were routinely persecuted, abused, denied the ability to work and even murdered simply for refusing to worship human authority figures as God’s. Throughout church history sincere followers of Jesus have been victimized and oppressed. At times even by so-called “Christian leaders” who loved power more than they feared God. Over and over again, throughout history Christian people have grown stronger, wiser and more faithful to God in the middle of unspeakable suffering and persecution 

How they did that matters.

A Lot.

 Especially now. Leadership is not, as a whole is not getting better. Events of the last few years have exposed a creepy authoritarian element in many political leaders from countries once thought to be unswervingly democratic and safe from tyranny like Australia, Austria, New Zealand and Canada. Some public schools and health departments have become despotic in their approach in their approach to leadership. Even the church has had more than its fair share of greedy, narcissistic and exploitive leaders.

Sigh. 

Christians throughout history have been able to live with and pray for corrupt, evil and despotic leaders. They were able to do so, because they understood deep at the core of who they were that every human being on earth is ultimately answerable to God.  

They knew leadership is a stewardship. Human beings might think they are electing, appointing or hiring a leader—or an arrogant leader might imagine they have achieved their position due to their own cleverness, power or maneuvering but in reality, God—not human wisdom or control is what places people in positions of authority. This means that ultimately all human leaders whether they lead the church, the state or the family will someday answer to God for how they handle (or mishandle) the power and authority they have been asked to steward (Luke 12:47-48). 

Early Christians understood that no one actually gets away with anything. Not really. Contemporary believers do everything they can to avoid thinking about or talking about the J-word. Judgment. Most Christians are super uncomfortable with anyone getting punished, even if they totally one-hundred-percent deserve to be punished for their horrible behavior. The writings of the Church Fathers indicate early Christians did not have any such issues (2nd Thessalonians 1:6, Romans 12:19, Jude 1:5-7, 2nd Peter 2:4-21). Early Christians understood in a very real way God is not just a God of love. He is also a God of judgment. Early Christians took solace in knowing that evil, prideful leaders who refused to do what was right would someday be punished for their sins. Early Christians had the faith to believe God would settle the score, if not in this life, then in the one to come (Revelation 21:11-15). This knowledge empowered them to endure the suffering that goes along with living under the thumb of unjust and evil leaders.

They also knew enough about history and the Bible to know that sometimes God does not wait until death to begin adjudicating things. Occasionally evil people get a preview of their eternal suffering.  King Saul, the man who hunted David like an animal for years died by suicide and in disgrace. Queen Jezebel, arguably the most evil female leader in human history died from being thrown out a window. No one cared enough about her to retrieve her body. She was eventually eaten by wild dogs (yuck).   King Herod (Matthew 2:1-22) the man who murdered a village full of baby boys in an attempt to eradicate any competition for his power died of a horrible death from “intense itching”, “severe intestinal discomfort”, “breathlessness” and: wait for it… “gangrene of the genitalia”—His man part literally rotted off (super yuck). A sure sign of divine retribution if there ever was one. Early Christians saw Nero, the royal nut-job who set Rome on fire and blamed Christians for it killed himself to avoid being murdered by his own staff.   

Anytime a person refuses to repent they spend eternity in hell. Therefore, no one ought to revel in anyone else’s punishment. That being said, the beliefs of early Christians serve as a reminder for us in tough times that God is not unaware of anything. Nothing is hidden from His sight and everything will eventually be dealt with by Him (Hebrews 4:13).  

This affected the early church in profound ways. 

 They were able to pray for and feel compassion for their tormenters.  They were also thoughtful and cautious in the way they handled any authority they were given. They did not lord it over anyone.  It did not matter if the authority they held was in the church, the family or the state. They understood true Christians wear any authority they are given with a measure of humility and with a fear of the Lord. They knew no one is exempt from God’s judgment. 

We would do well to learn from them. 

The Why of Trials-

Lisa M. Price4 Comments

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed~ 1st Peter 1:6-7

At the end of every year I spend a little time mentally recapping the events of the year. I intentionally make a point to deliberately praise God for the good we experienced in our family. Then ask God to grant me the wisdom to make the bad stuff better in the coming year (James 1:5).

 As my mind meandered through the events of the past year, it did not take me long to conclude that this past year will not go on record as one of the better years in Price family history. The whole thing from start to finish was, in fact, legitimately quite awful. Everything was a struggle. Nothing worked out the way we hoped it would, or in a way that made any sense at all to any of us. There have certainly been blessings, but for the most part even the blessings this year were born out of enormous difficulty and came as result of some hard-fought battles.

 Don’t get me wrong:

I believe with all of my heart God is firmly in control of all of the events of our lives, even the crummy ones. I am also convinced our happy ending will be arriving at some point in the (hopefully) near future but we sure haven’t experienced it as of this writing.

 I am sharing our story not because I want to bum you out with a laundry list of disappointments and difficulties. I am sharing because I believe it’s imperative Christians are real about their struggles. If we always put on a happy face and pretend not to have have any problems or stress or, in my case, an unbelievably crummy year, we will never really understand the reason God allows struggles and heartache in the lives of His people (1st Peter 1:6-7, James 1:2-4).

 Not understanding the why of the tough, bothersome, tedious junk of life is spiritually confusing. Living in a state of spiritual confusion tends to make us hard, bitter and resentful and can cause us to leave the life of faith altogether (Hebrews 12:15).

 There are all kinds of reasons why God allows us to struggle or suffer through stuff that FEELS completely unnecessary. Sometimes, we struggle because there are things we need to learn about ourselves. There is nothing like a little stress to show us all the attitudes and knee-jerk responses to pressure that are not exactly what Jesus would do in the same situation. It is impossible to change what we don’t see. Therefore, it could even be argued trials are a necessary evil that help us see what areas of our lives still need work (2nd Corinthians 13:9, 2nd Corinthians 13:11).

 Trials also prove our faith. Not to God. God knows exactly how much or little faith we all have already. Persisting through a trial with our faith firmly intact proves to you and me and all people around us that we are not just flocking to God for what He can do for us. Perseverance proves our love for God and is the surest sign of salvation that there is.

 Last week I was given a reminder of perhaps the most critical reason of all that God allows us to experience trials and difficulties. I had the privilege of looking someone I care deeply about in the eye and telling them in all honesty that I completely understood the weird, crazy, absurd situation they were dealing with. I could do that because I had been through something very similar just a few years before. I could assure this person that they too would survive their shock just as I had survived mine. The Apostle Paul gives us an image of how the cycle of trial and comfort works in the life of a Christian in 2nd Corinthians 1:3-5:

 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

 My prayer for all of us  is that God will comfort us in a way that we can feel tangibly as we go through the trials that are sure to come our way. I also pray that He will give us all many opportunities to be the hands, feet and source of comfort our hurting world will undoubtedly need in the coming year.