It’s when we begin beating our head against a brick wall that we realize the truth of our situation.
There’s nothing we can do to change the facts of life as we know it.
We want to slam our fist into the wall, to feel the surface of the sheetrock as it splinters under our onslaught. We need to make something bend under the force of our fist, to give way, to change just because we say it has to change.
Yet we know what’s behind that wall, concrete block, and we’ll only break our fist if we try.
The real issue isn’t the wall, our fist, or our head. We’re crying out in frustration at a life that doesn’t seem to make sense to us.
We’re crying out, “What’s going on, God? Where are you when we need you? Why do we feel so abandoned?”
2 Timothy 1:7 tells us:
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
Self-control. That’s not a word we like to hear. Who wants to talk of self-control? We want to espouse “Name It-Claim It” theology. We want the good life. We want our needs met, and we want them met now. Do you hear that God? Are you a slacker or something?
Yet the Word says, “…not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.”
So we take a deep breath, and we put a smile on our face, and we proclaim the goodness of God. Then, surprisingly, he comes to us, and we feel his love.
1 John 4:18 tells us how it works:
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
When we trust in God, even when we don’t feel like it, God’s grace will surround us, and we will know his everlasting presence. It’s his gift to us. He never abandons us. He simply waits until we choose to open our hearts to his perfect love.
It’s when we release ourselves to God that he allows his love to encapsulate us and make us feel secure.
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Code: FGO.J.22.15.vo.esv