DISAPPOINTMENT WITH OURSELVES AND THE CHURCH

 

 

Many ask, “How can I continue to believe when I see believers and the Church in such a dismal condition? Where is the promised new life?” There are many answers to this question. For one thing, we do not apply the resources God gives us for growth:

 

·       Hebrews 5:12–14 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

 

We also might be double-minded and not serious about the Lord (Matthew 6:33):

·       James 1:6–8 But let him ask in faith, with no [sinful] doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

 

There is a good and a bad doubt. However, even serious Christians might not look good on the outside. One reason for this is that the Lord largely chooses broken people:

·       1 Corinthians 1:26–29 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

 

Another reason is that we are continually being remodeled by our Lord, and structures that are being remodeled are messy:

·       1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment [refinement] to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

 

There is also a continual battle being fought within the believer between our two natures that are opposed to one another:

 

·       Galatians 5:17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

 

Nevertheless, there is growth in ourselves and our brethren (Romans 8:28), though it might be hard to see. Even the Apostle Paul had admitted:

·       Romans 7:21–25 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

 

Why does God leave us with our sinful inclinations and responses? If think that we must first be humbled and broken before we can be exalted. This teaches us to rely upon God and not upon ourselves (2 Corinthians 1:8-10). Seeing the sin that continues to reside within makes us growingly grateful for His gift of righteousness. He loves us despite our many failures.

Perhaps instead it is our pride that blinds us to God’s workmanship in His Church?