This morning I felt like reading from the Book of Malachi, as one Christian comedian said "the only Italian prophet". These verses have always been interesting to me - Malachi 3:13-15NIV:
[13 "Your words have been harsh against Me," says the LORD, "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?'
[14] You have said, 'It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts? [15] So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.' "
The reason these verses have been interesting, is that these are the types of thoughts I hear when I run into a rough patch in life. These are the type of thoughts that I hear running through my mind - "what good is it to serve God, if this stuff happens?" I say they are running through my mind, rather than me thinking them, because I believe their source is not my mind, but rather they emanate from the enemy, the deceiver, the accuser of God. I love God, and my heart is turned toward Him. I know the truth of His love, affection, mercy, grace, faithfulness and forgiveness. I know His character. Yet when difficult things occur in my life, these thoughts immediately rise up. I know these don't originate in my mind, because the difference between these thoughts and my normal thoughts are too great.
Looking at this from another example, I love my wife with my whole heart. Every day I am grateful to be in relationship with her, and thankful for our life together. I do not immediately say it is useless being faithful to her, loving her, living my life in relationship with her, the moment I have a rough day. I don't love her to get something, I love her because of who she is. I do not throw aside 28+ years of loving thought towards her in a moment. So, if I am able to maintain this type of consistency of thought in my relationship with my wife, why wouldn't I be able to do the same in my relationship with the Lord?
The answer is quite simple, I can, but I must learn to discern the origination of my thoughts. Jesus says the following about our enemy, (John 8:44 NIV)..."He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." These type of thoughts are clearly lies about the character and nature of God, thus they must come from the 'father of lies'. It is our agreement with these 'thoughts' that allows them to continue to spin within our mind and grow in strength. Understanding our thoughts, the way the enemy lies to us in our mind, and discerning the origination of thoughts, is key to us being able to walk out our Christian life in peace and joy.
Secondly, these thoughts, should we grab onto them and believe them, set up to become false beliefs. The premise these thoughts work on is that when we entrust our lives to God, only good things will happen, the more we serve Him the better our life becomes. This is one of the roots of the prosperity gospel, the belief that the more you love God, the more stuff He will bless you with in your life, and that if you are bad, God will take things away. Our relationship with God should not be based on what we get out of the relationship, but rather based on the character and love from God. As I said before, I don't love my wife because of what I get, but because of who she is. The enemy wants us to believe that the things that God has promised us, because of His love for us, is what we should focus on, rather than on Him, His love and character. If a woman only marries a man because he is rich, we call her a 'gold-digger'. If a man only marries a younger women for her looks, we say he has a 'trophy' wife. These are sad relationships, where true love likely does not exist. The same could be said, for people who only 'love' God because of what they can get. If the wealthy man loses his money, his 'gold-digger' wife is quick to find the door, and the divorce attorney. If the 'trophy' wife becomes unattractive, the husband does the same thing, he quickly finds a new 'trophy'. This is the same spirit of thought behind these verses from Malachi, and it is clearly sick, twisted and selfish. Yet, many of our Christian friends have some of this thinking in their belief system.
Let me give a quick example, when my wife was diagnosed with cancer, many people were shocked that something like that would happen to her, for she is such a wonderful, loving, and faith-filled individual. What is the root of that thought? Namely that if someone is good, loving and loving of God, that nothing bad can happen to them, which as I said before is the root of thought for the prosperity gospel. Others were wondering why she would get cancer, and their thoughts were that there might be some secret sin in our lives, or unrepented generational sin, thus blaming the sickness on bad behaviour. Again, the root of this thought is the same - only good things happen to good people, if bad is happening then you must be bad. Another time, I had a herniated disk in my neck, the long-term result of a car accident I was in when I was 13, and I had well intentioned friends say that they thought I was suffering because I was "stiff-necked" towards the Lord, meaning my bad behavior was causing my bad situation. The root of all of this thinking is the same and it is wrong belief about God, and wrong belief about what our relationship with God is really about. It is based on the lies the enemy spews about God, and it is as old as man (go back to the story of Adam and Eve for the original story of the lies and deception and character assault on God).
When we encounter these type of thoughts in our own mind, we must recognize them for their origination and reject them. When we encounter them in others, we must love those who speak them, understand they have been taught wrong information, and have grace for them, but at the same time not align ourselves with their beliefs. I know that all the people who were expressing these thoughts during my wife's cancer, and my neck problems, were actually well intentioned. They thought that we were unaware of the cause of our sickness and situation and were trying to help us identify the cause. They loved us, saw our pain and wanted to enable us to get free, which were admirable intentions. I don't fault them for their wrong beliefs, in the same way that I wouldn't fault someone who was taught wrongly about fractions. I do, however, have the freedom to not believe the same way as them. There may well be those who read this and disagree with my thinking, and that is OK, as I am sure I don't have everything figured out, and likely have several areas of wrong belief hidden in my belief system.
For His part, God will continue to show His true character, as He revealed through His Son Jesus (Heb 1: 1-3). He will reveal Himself correctly in all our lives, for He is more than capable of defending His Name and character. I just need to continue to reveal the Lord in my life, and share Him with others as I know Him.
He loves me. He has good plans for me. He provides for me. He is compassionate, merciful and gracious to me. He is slow to anger, and forgiving towards me. He desires relationship with me. He guides me. He speaks to me. He corrects me, but not with harsh judgment or affliction, but rather with loving counsel and direction. He helps me to grow and mature. He gives me awesome gifts. He is the greatest, most loving individual I know. He encourages me to grow into the likeness of His Son Jesus, and helps me daily.
For my part, I love God for who He is, and that is enough!
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