What exactly is the nature of my own 'unbelief'? In the past I've thought maybe God would protect us from all that ails the worldly, but I realize we are all just as vulnerable to cancer - for instance - as anyone is. I've been teaching this Sunday School class now for going on two years. One thing I keep going back to is that the time of testing is coming to us all, like a path we cannot climb out of, and the path leads to a furnace of fire, but there is a door into it, and a door out the other side . . . there's a time of testing, and that time will pass. And what comes out is not the same as what goes in. Raw goes in, and Gold comes out. And of this time of testing I say this, that it is our relationship with God NOW that will take us through that time of testing.
When my first marriage fell apart, I was so steeped in sin, so confused, and all along feeling like I was doing just fine. I was so far from where he has brought me to now. So much has been shed, and burned away, that I could not even begin to list them, and good riddance! I'm not perfect... having not yet passed from this life to the next . . . but it is always in hind sight that we see how Blind we've been.
I once told God, I'd go anywhere He'd call me to go, as long as He'd be there with me, and that has never changed. I just never imagined the trials He would call me to!
The nature of my 'unbelief' ? I don't believe in a trouble free life anymore. I don't believe that I'll some day be exempt from life's hard times. And when I am going through hard times, I need to more and more realize it has nothing to do with me somehow deserving it (as in punishment from God) and has more to do with the perfecting of my faith.
See 1 Peter chapter 1
Hi Laurence.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what you're saying by your last paragraph there. Is it that your "unbelief" is a good kind that chooses not to believe what's false? For example, not believing that you'll somehow be exempt from hard times. I agree with your assessment of the purpose of suffering, but to disbelieve that we can avoid suffering in this world is not what the writer of Hebrews meant by unbelief. And if, as you say, the nature of your own particular unbelief is to not believe what is false, then you'd be wise to beware that there is another form of unbelief out there that is not so good, and I'd be surprised if there was a Christian alive who didn't struggle with it. It's the kind mentioned in Hebrews 3:12, in which the writer refers to an "evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God." It's all about not believing God (rather than what you seem to be referring to in not believing what's false). And it's serious enough to prevent people from finding rest in God. And though you may not struggle with it as much as I do, I would still think it a fair assumption that the "nature" of your own unbelief would include a mix of the Hebrews 3:12 kind of unbelief as well. That's why we're so strongly warned to "Take care" in regards to it.