Opened up to this section of The Renewed Mind today when taking a break from cleaning the church.
...the Holy Spirit brings into action a very special too called Trouble. This is a tool which God has designed to get down into the depths of our being. It is designed to fulfill a twofold function: it has a cutting edge and an etching point. The cutting edge of trouble exposes our weaknesses. The etching point inscribes upon the picture of God's strength. Trouble exposes our weakness so that we can learn to draw upon God's strength. That is the particular job the tool of trouble does for each of us as it is used by the Holy Spirit.
First of all, the Holy Spirit uses trouble to expose our weakness. This weakness falls into two basic categories: The weakness of our circumstances--those things outside of us we depend on; and the weakness of our character--those things inside of us we depend on.
The cutting edge of trouble exposes the weakness of our circumstances. Economic circumstances, for instance, can wield great influence upon our lives. The Bible illustrates this in the parable of the Rich Fool. In your own life, without any warning, you can have hundreds of dollars of unexpected expenses; inflation can eat away your savings. You discover just how dependent you are on material things. The Holy Spirit may use economic trouble to expose those things in our lives which are not essentially related to Jesus. Calamities come to show the weakness of our social environment--from a little thing like a freeway tie-up, to a major thing like war. Overnight a stable situation can crumble. God allows it to happen. He allows the cutting edge of trouble to knife into our undue dependency upon our surroundings. We may thing that we have stable relationships in regard to our standing with other people. But God will cut into that with the sharp edge of trouble. Jesus Himself found this aspect of His life put to the test. He came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The crowd shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" Five days later the crowd's enthusiasm evaporated. God put it to the test. If Jesus had been depending on the support of the crowd, He would have been thoroughly discouraged. The first thing that trouble does is to show us how helpless and needy we really are.
God also wants us to recognize the weaknesses in our own character. We tend to depend upon certain characteristics within ourselves to bring us through difficult situations. [Example of Peter saying he would never deny Jesus.] In our relationships with other people we have to learn not to depend on the merits of our own character. Have you been disappointed or even shocked by the impatience, the hatred, the resentment that suddenly bursts out of you under extreme testing in a situation? You say, "Oh! I didn't know that was in me!" But God knew it was in you. So He took the sharp knife of trouble and exposed that weakness, sot hat you could recognize your need for a strength beyond yourself. Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish theologian and philosopher, tells a story that marked him all his life. He saw a man whose relationship with God apparently stood in good order. And yet, when his young son died, this man stood by the graveside and shook his fist toward heaven crying, "Is this the way You treat me after all I've done for You?" Suddenly the weakness of his character stood nakedly exposed. His relationship to God was not a relationship of love and trust, but one of duty and keeping the rulers, and being paid for what you do. Not the mentality of a son, but of a slave. The sharp knife of trouble exposed his weakness.
Perhaps you are in the midst of trouble even as you read this. What does God want you to do when you come into trouble? Trouble knifes you open and you see the weakness in your life. The things outside you collapse. The things inside you crumble. What are you to do? That's where the second function of the tool of trouble comes into play. On this raw, exposed part of our life, God begins to etch a picture and a promise of the strength and the resources of God. Consider two questions at this point: When the Holy Spirit wields His tool of trouble upon your life, does it make you bitter or does it make you better? Do you cry out for deliverance of for development?
The words "bitter" and "better" are very similar. Just one letter makes the difference, the I. And that is the key. If you focus upon the I in your situation of trouble, you will become bitter and hard. If you look at your own misery and begin to wallow around in self-pity, bitterness will overcome you. Let's not kid ourselves about trouble. There's nothing magic about it. Trouble is morally neutral. [More about choosing not to become bitter and try to use your own strength. Example of Paul, who focuses on God during trouble. 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:10.]
As you look to God, the heavens open up. God begins to show you how you can draw upon the resources of heaven to fill up this emptiness and weakness that has been exposed in your own life. God never exposes weakness to shame us, to make use feel helpless and frightened. He only wants to tell us, "I never meant for you to live a life independent of Me. I created you a dependent being. If you are not depending on Me, you are going to be depending upon some false god." The human creature was created for dependency--utter, complete dependency. When God exposes our weakness, it is only to bring us back to the bed-rock, so that we can build our life on the right foundation.
When the Holy Spirit wields the tool of trouble in your life, do you look for deliverance, or do you look for development? If you continually refuse to meet trouble head-on, you miss the Holy Spirit's purpose. You've been cut open, your weakness is exposed, but then you tuck yourself together and dodge away from the trouble. All you've had is a painful experience and nothing has been gained by it. This is our human tendency. We cry out, "Lord, deliver me! What can I do to get out of this situation?" If we listen, the voice of God will say, "I don't intend for you to get out of it. I intend for you to go through it. The purpose for which this trouble has come is not that you be delivered, but that you be developed--that you become more like Jesus as you go through this experience."
Katie here again. I love how God often directs me exactly to the thing He wants me to read. Honestly, I don't think this book is terribly well written. However, this passage reiterates a subject I have been pondering and discussing. I think I mentioned on this blog that we often forget that God's purpose for us is sanctification. The last few sentences of that passage did sum this up well. Although I do think there are occasions when God will indeed deliver us from our woes, often we forget that He is molding us to the image of His Son. We're focused on smaller goals: jobs, relationships, financial security, ministry, etc. Yet, all those are just parts of God's main intention.
Occasionally I am concerned that by posting on these topics, I shall give the impression that I have "arrived" spiritually. Friends, I have so far to go! I mess up multiple times a day. Yes, I have the privilege of sharing an intimate and profound relationship with the Supreme Being. He has grown me tremendously and graciously given me much insight. Yet, I greatly resonate with the words of Paul in one of my favorite passages of Scripture:
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3
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