How to Live Right When Your Life Goes Wrong by Leslie Vernick – The common denominator in all of our destructive behaviors is that we are acting on something that is not true. Gain a new perspective on the troubles God allows in your life. Come on a journey of personal growth and spiritual discovery as your heart is drawn back to a central tenet of the Gospel: Truth isn’t something you learn, but Someone you know. And the truth will set you free.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, [32] and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 ESV)
If your feelings about who God is differ from what the Bible says about who God is, which one do you tend to accept?
“Perhaps on college campuses more than anywhere else, people’s reason and intellect often interfere with their coming to know Christ. ‘How could you honestly believe that Jesus was born of a virgin?’ one college student chided. ‘It isn’t possible to be raised from the dead,’ another sneered. ‘To become a Christian means I have to put my brains on the shelf.’ These miracles are impossible, according to human reason and logic. But God tells us that human intellect and reason are limited and can deceive us when they become our ultimate source for truth and reality.” (pgs. 102, 103)
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” . . . (Psalm 14:1 ESV)
You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.” (Isaiah 47:10 ESV emphasis added)
Our unbelieving culture has elevated this heresy and attempted to establish it as fact through repetition. “The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am.” (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, page 57)
A trend in modern discipleship is to elevate the experiential aspects of worship and relationship. Chuck Smith Jr., in his book, There is a Season, wrote: “What would happen if we allowed people to “feel” what we cannot explain, to know with the heart and not with the brain? We would open the door of faith to a wider audience than if we continued to insist on a rational belief in the facts as the only legitimate starting point of the Christian faith.” What do think about the idea the we should validate our human experience when we don’t understand what God is up to?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
(Romans 1:18-23 ESV)
All that said, what do we do when we don’t understand what God is up to?
“Only through knowing the truth can we begin to bring light upon the dark places in our hearts. Ultimate truth, or true reality, … will never be found in human knowledge or experience. Truth is much bigger than that. Truth isn’t something we learn; truth is Someone we know. Jesus said he is the Truth,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 ESV)
… and that he was telling the truth. In the Gospels, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth” more than seventy times. Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified (or changed) by the truth, and confirmed God’s Word as truth.” (pg 107)
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [15] I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:14-19 ESV)
“When our reason, logic, emotions, intuitions, or imaginations conflict with what God says, who are we going to believe? Who are we going to trust? Eve fell into sin because she believed what the serpent said rather than what God told her. God wants us to believe him, not just to believe in him. He longs for our trust, even in the face of contradictory evidence. The simplest definition of faith is found in Genesis 15:6: ‘And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.’ God and the Scriptures are our source of truth.” (pg 108)
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, [18] so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. [19] We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, [20] where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:17-20 ESV emphasis added)
What are some of the issues you tend to wrestle with God about?
“Believing by faith is one level of the Christian journey; walking by faith is another. ‘Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord’ (Psalm 89:15). If we are to enter into our truest and greatest capacity as human beings, we need to enter into another dimension of reality that is not common to human experience. Jesus showed us the way. He lived daily in God-centered reality, and when he was taken up to heaven, he promised he would give us the Spirit of truth, assuring us that God’s presence would reside within us.” (pgs. 112, 113)
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, [17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17 ESV)
“Practicing the presence of God in its simplest terms means yielding ourselves to the authority of God and being mindful of the spiritual realm around us. It means we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us to see everything from God’s perspective.” (pg. 113) So… Since we feel and experience the Holy Spirit, are our experiences a valid source of truth?
While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:4-5 NLT emphasis added)
Leave a Reply