There are moments in life that define us. There are situations and circumstances we go through that compel us to either rise to the challenge, dig deep, and discover new wells of heretofore unexpected strength, or crush us beneath the weight of their bulk, leaving us broken and untethered. These are the make-or-break moments, the ones that shape us and we remember for the rest of our lives. When we find ourselves at the crossroads of such monumental, life-defining choices, the deciding factor will always be whether we trust God beyond what we can see with our eyes of flesh or surrender to the avalanche of despair that the situation produced.
Trust, faith, and hope are all choices we make as
individuals, and once the choice is made, we contend with the consequences,
whether for good or ill. It takes self-awareness and brutal honesty to look at
where we are and admit, if only to ourselves, that it's due to our choices and
decisions over the span of months, years, or decades that we find ourselves in
certain situations and conclude that had we heeded God at certain bifurcations
in the road, we would be in a different place altogether.
You can’t blame God for where you are if every step of the
way, you turned left when He told you to turn right, moved forward when He told
you to stand still, and pressed on trying to make it work on your own when His
instruction was to rest in Him and see what He can do.
Beyond the ripples and waves the fall of prominent men within
Christendom has caused of late, what I find equally tragic is that few, if any,
have taken accountability for their actions, acknowledged their failures, and
sought repentance. I’m not talking about those who, eying a return to ministry,
have half-heartedly apologized for their sin, but those who, understanding the
gravity of their situation, repented before God in sackcloth and ash.
It’s not my job to gauge true repentance of heart because only
God knows the hearts of men, but with true repentance comes a new humility, a
change of one’s ways, and a rejection of the sins that beset them, then exposed
them, then made them the topic of the news cycle for weeks on end.
How do you know so and so didn’t repent? Because they’re
still trying to find someone to blame for their actions, attempting to
scapegoat their sin, and laying the blame at the feet of anyone else other than
themselves, that’s how.
Recently, a pastor of one of the biggest churches in America
tried to blame his twelve-year-old victim for the unspeakable things he did,
claiming that she seduced him, having a Jezebel spirit and a spirit of
seduction upon her. Yes, you read that right, twelve. This occurred while he
was a fully grown adult, married, with a child, but it was the
twelve-year-old’s fault for his being creepy and perverted and grooming her to
the point of taking her innocence. Sorry, not sorry, but that’s not true
repentance of heart. That’s trying to justify your perversion and
licentiousness.
This is where we are, and it’s not because God desired the
church to be full of hypocrites and perverts doing unspeakable things to those
under their spiritual authority but because those men made choices. Conscious,
repeated, ongoing choices contrary to the Word and will of God.
Nobody wakes up five hundred pounds overweight, huffing and
puffing as they waddle to the door to take delivery of their Dominos order. It
happened gradually, over time, one choice leading to another, compounding its
effects, until one either acknowledges the state they’re in or continues to
blame the dryer for shrinking their clothes and buying a new dryer.
Sin lies at the door of every man’s heart, and its desire is
to corrupt and destroy, but it is our duty to resist it and rule over it,
knowing that we have the power to do so through the grace of God. It has been
this way since the beginning, when God warned Cain of the enemy’s devices,
clearly defining the two paths that were before him. He could have chosen to do
well, and he would be accepted, or harden his heart, grow bitter, and do the
unthinkable, rising up against his brother Abel and killing him.
Man does not disobey, rebel, or sin in a vacuum. There are
always consequences to the path they choose to take, whether those consequences
are evident instantly or over time. In His love, God warns us to choose what is
good, to do well, and to let faith be the anchor that keeps us from being swept
away by the roaring sea, but the choice is ultimately ours as individuals as to
whether we will heed His counsel, or do as we will.
Not only did Job not find fault with God for his situation,
but he also didn’t go looking for someone to blame for it. He didn’t lash out
at his wife, trying to blame her for having lost everything, or his servants
who came to bring him the devastating news of what had occurred to his children
and his possessions; he didn’t inquire if the cook had made some bad lamb and
that’s why he was covered in boils, he retained his integrity and his faith in
the God he served and humbled himself in worship. All this while God deemed him
a blameless and upright man. It’s not as though Job had some secret sin that
had been exposed or knew himself to be faithless, pretending to be faithful. He
was not suffering the consequences of his actions or the repercussions of his
rebellion. His faith was being tested, all the while remaining in the dark as
to why and for what purpose.
Job made the choice to remain faithful even though he could
not see the whole picture and was operating with incomplete information. All he
knew was that he’d just suffered the loss of all his earthly possessions, the
loss of his children, and the loss of his health. Even so, he trusted the God
he served and had confidence in His sovereignty.
How far are you willing to trust God? If not all the way, then your faith has not been established, and the only question is how hard the enemy has to press to make you waiver.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
Posted on 15 November 2024 | 11:35 am
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