Let me ask you a quick question: Is your walk with God based on promises you made to Him, or on promises He made to you? Think about that as you read the rest of this message.


What happens when Christians Fail?

What does God do when we fail to have strong faith, when we decide not to obey, when we stumble into sin?

Does God punish His children in anger? If something bad happens to us, does it mean that we're not real Christians?

There's a long history of human failure.

Human beings rebelled in the very beginning, bringing the curse of sin on all people in every generation. Life is therefore filled with difficulties of every kind. Today, we often lose patience with ourselves, our weaknesses and circumstances, and even with God -- even after He saves us. But His response is always grace. Even when we face the bitterness of defeat, and the despair that follows God's proper judgments and/or corrections in our lives, He never forsakes us or tosses us away. He never pushes us away. No, He works instead to draw us ever closer to Himself.

One of the first things that shocked me about the Lord -- both in Scripture and in daily life -- is that He's not like people. A man would often lose his temper at many of the things people say to God. And the gods of pagan lore are no different than mortal men in their antics and behavior.

The Bible reveals the true nature of the living God.

People said many silly things to the "angel of the Lord," and in their prayers to God in the OT, yet He did not explode in wrath like a human male often will. Look at Cain's response in Genesis, chapter 4, when God asks about Abel. The Lord is patient. It is Cain that chooses to walk away from the presence of God.

Even when people expressed their deepest frustrations with the Lord, God responded according to the need or the situation. (I'm remembering Abram --Gen 15:2,3 -- Moses at the burning bush, & later in Numbers 11, etc., Gideon in Judges 6, and many others who simply opened their hearts and told God whatever was there.)

And that's just in the Old Testament.

In the NT we see Peter arguing with Jesus about whether He should die or not And Jesus does correct Peter sharply, but does not drive him away. And Peter was by no means the only one to tell the Lord what he thought.

We see Martha and Mary both saying, as gently as they could in their despair, that Jesus had failed them miserably (John 11:21,32). But the Lord does not lash out at them. He simply turns Martha's attention back to the fact that He is the very power of life and resurrection. And after Mary says the same thing that Martha did, and Jesus sees the people all around Him mourning (for who among us can really see past death and the suffering we experience right here in this life?) He weeps with them.

Except for the grace of God, it would be impossible to teach people to have real faith in God. Thankfully, in Jesus Christ, God has genuine, loving compassion on us all.

God's Reaction to Our Failures

In Jesus Christ God has responded to our stupidity, to all our constant returning to sin (and then, when the sins pays out its wages, we demand that life be all rosy and happy again), to our total lack of faith. In Jesus Christ, God reaches out to us. He lived among us, died in our place, faced the shame and loss that we ourselves rightly deserve, and even loved us right through to the very end.

And, thankfully, in Jesus Christ, God has crushed the head of the serpent (Genesis 3), trampling all over death, breaking once and for all, the power of the grave, and has triumphed mightily over the righteous curse of sin. In Jesus Christ, God has reconciled the whole of creation, as 1 Corinthians 517-21, and Colossians 1 & 2 tell us.

How many times have we said, or at least thought that God was punishing us in anger? Two things come to mind. One is what a buddy of Job said. He said a thing that is so very, very true.

"Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects;
Therefore do not despise
the chastening of the Almighty.
For He bruises, but He binds up;
He wounds, but His hands make whole.
He shall deliver you in six troubles,
Yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
In famine He shall redeem you from death,
And in war from the power of the sword.
You shall be hidden
from the scourge of the tongue,
And you shall not be afraid
of destruction when it comes.
You shall laugh at destruction and famine,
And you shall not be afraid
of the beasts of the earth.
For you shall have a covenant
with the stones of the field,
And the beasts of the field
shall be at peace with you.
You shall know that your tent is in peace;
You shall visit your dwelling
and find nothing amiss.
You shall also know
that your descendants shall be many,
And your offspring like the grass of the earth.
You shall come to the grave at a full age,
As a sheaf of grain ripens in its season.
Behold, this we have searched out;
It is true. Hear it, and know it for yourself." (Job 5:17-27NRSV)


Jeremiah and the ruin of Jerusalem.

And the other thing is what Jeremiah said, as he surveyed the destruction that finally swept over Jerusalem and Judah, by the very hand of God. The prophet describes the terrible circumstances all around him, the death and crippling, the total hopelessness and starvation (all of which was promised in Deuteronomy). And he describes his own broken heart.

But then he breaks right into everything with these words:

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD'S mercies
we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I hope in Him!"
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
Let him put his mouth in the dust--
There may yet be hope.
Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
(Lamentations 3:21-32 NKJV)

My point is simply this: We who love the Lord may often feel the terrible heat of fiery trials and bitter difficulties. We may wonder as did the readers of Peter's letters what the heck is going on here anyway? But the testings and the furnaces that would consume us (if our enemy were allowed to have his way) are used by God to refine us -- and to make our faith truly pure. In all the dead-ends, and brick walls, and defeats, and failures we seem to experience, we also learn to return to God. We learn honesty and humility in prayer, and in our walk with God.

The Lord already knows the secret thoughts of our hearts anyway.

We bring to the Lord whatever we have. It is only right that we bring Him whatever we are, whatever we have in our hearts. ("Just as I am...") And sometimes all we have is weeping, or bitter complaining, or words that announce just how thin and failing our faith really is.

"Lord, if only You had been here..."

"Lord why didn't You step in...?"

"Lord Jesus, I was really counting on Your help today. Where were You??"

"I prayed in faith, trusting You, but You let me down..."

It is God's will (I believe) that we should be as Martha and Mary who said what they really felt. We need to be like Peter who argued when he disagreed with Jesus. We need to be as the simplest child who cries great tears of bitter disappointment when Mom or Dad refuses to let them have their way. God accepts our honesty, even when it fails to reflect His perfect grace. God does not hate us for telling Him what we really feel.

Until we get honest, how can we really learn or grow? If we do not expose the wound, how can it be cleansed and treated and healed?

If we do not say to God what we really feel and think, how can He correct us and show us a better way? If we were not sinners, then we would always feel just as we should. And we would only have beautiful praise in our souls for God. But our sin makes us want the wrong things. And when God does not simply jump thru the hoops we hold up for Him, we often weep or complain. I know that I do my share.

Yet God loves us. It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

God is working His plan in our lives.

God does not reject us just because we've not yet reached perfect understanding and perfect faith. With my mind and my heart I do understand -- and believe God. But with that same heart, I also want my own way, and I often (it seems) become confused when things seem to go wrong -- and God just let's all the "bad things" happen.

It seems as though God is out to get me, sometimes. I can only imagine how Job must have felt when the Lord let so many terrible things happen to him.

God's purpose is never our defeat, but our spiritual growth. If He seems to crush us (or to allow us to be crushed), it is only the fleshly and sinful elements in our lives that He's out to destroy. And I sometimes I think that must be all there is to my life, because it seems like He's out to do me in! He prunes away whatever is fruitless in us so that we may grow healthier and more fruitful.

Cutting away large limbs can hurt and be scary. But maybe we should learn not to grow such massive limbs that have no root in Jesus (John 15).

I'm trying to learn the lesson that Habakkuk must have learned in order to sing this song:

Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and makes me tread upon the heights.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19 NRSV)

As for me, I have lived long enough to know that God is good -- really and truly good. He's good to all people, and especially to those who hope in Him.

Yes, but what if I can't take it? What if I lose my faith completely?

When the fires of life test us, only what lacks reality in Christ can be burned away. We cannot lose what is eternal. Christ is not damaged by the testing. Christ in us will remain as we learn to remain steadfast in Him.

Jesus Christ gives us life. Because He lives, our days are not really filled with bad things. And because of Him, whenever we do face difficulties in life, we have God's grace to hold us up and to make us alive forever. Satan can rant and rave and rage, as he certainly does. But he cannot truly defeat any child of God. He cannot pull us out of God's hand.

Jesus once said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one." (John 10:27-30)

That's why I have hope today and every day that passes. Whatever we have in us that comes from God is eternal and unbreakable. Only the superficial will be worn away by the raging of the storm. God will keep all that we commit to Him, and we will see -- when all is said and done -- that He was and is faithful in all things.

In Jesus I have victory and rejoicing, even when things do not seem to go my way. For even when I complain and fail to see what God is doing, He's still doing what needs to be done. He's still doing, still reigning, still guiding.

And Jesus Christ is still Lord of all. Praise God!

Jim