SELF-DESPAIR AND HOPE

The Christian life can prove quite discouraging. Our role-model is perfection Himself, and we find that we always fall shot, far short. The sin that lie at our core seems to be unmovable. Meanwhile, the Bible counsels us to overcome the unmovable. Just yesterday, I was reading:

·       …esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you…Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:13-22 ESV)

I find that the hardest sins to “abstain from” are the internal ones, which seem to be embedded in my DNA. I am horrified that these ugly inclinations are more than just occasional guests but part of my household. I despair of removing them. It seems that they have contaminated every thought like a moldy stain that has saturated into all of my most intimate places. What joy I had therefore experienced as I went on to read:

·       Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

While Scripture tells us in so many ways that we must keep ourselves “blameless,” it then says that “He will surely do it!!!” What a relief to cast our cares, worries, doubts, and discouragements on Him!

The battle is not ours but the Lord’s. The fruit we bear are His fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, and our struggles against sin should not allow us to think otherwise. They repeatedly teach us that without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:4-5; 2 Corinthians 3:5). Our hope must be in our Lord, as it should be, and, lest we forget, He leaves us with weakness and infirmity to demonstrate that our strength is in the Lord alone (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Nevertheless, it is imperative that we continue our humbling struggle against sin. It teaches us a lesson that we must continue to learn until we go to be with Him. Gratefulness follows self-despair. This is also the lesson that Paul also had to learn repeatedly:

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

We need to be patience. Daily, we set our hope upon Him by remembering the ways He has delivered us in the past.