Help is on the Way

Don’t we all struggle? Any healthy believer does. The old preacher adage was, everyone is either in the midst of a trial, coming out of a trial or going into a trial. I don’t think this is the same kind of struggle that I’m talking about. Jesus, apparently, was never coming out of a struggle. He was always in the midst of struggle – His own, and that of others. He was always heading closer to the ultimate struggle with which He grappled to the point of great drops of blood in the garden. It would seem that the God of the universe, when in human form, struggled to stay on task. Twice this is evident in the scripture. In the garden, Jesus asked that there be another way for the task to be accomplished, that the very reason He came be changed. In the wilderness after His baptism, He struggled with giving it all up for immediate power and glory.

So were these instances struggles or trials? I guess it doesn’t matter what you call them except to differentiate between different seasons of life. We are called into struggle. Jesus asked us to take up our cross daily and follow Him . To follow implies to do what He did. Struggle. Our mission, given by Jesus, is a struggle. We will continually struggle with the necessity of it, with its value. We will constantly meet with resistance – Jesus Himself did all these things.

But the trials are extra. Often huge road blocks thrown in to avert our eyes, divert our attention, to draw us inside ourselves – physical and emotional obstacles to get in the way of our mission. The darkness of these trials can be overwhelming as they weaken us for our normal struggles. Some of you struggle in the midst of the trial with whether you brought this upon yourselves – are you suffering the consequence of your sin? For others, your uprightness brought these trials upon you. Others, because your purity is a danger to the enemy, have been led to be more greatly tempted toward sin. Often these trials are brought upon you by someone else’s sin. God did not intend men and women to be islands. Now fallen, we live in a fragile ecosystem of sin. A drunk driver kills a family on the interstate. An innocent spouse and entire family are destroyed by the other spouse’s sin or mere neglect.

At this moment some of you have walked directly into an unexpected place and have no idea what is to come before you recognize the path again. Some of you have turned the corner in the darkness and can see a dim flicker to mark your direction. Some of you have come upon dense fog in the dark and any light that you still shine seems to be bounced back in your face. I don’t have any answers for you. I am terrified to risk sending you happy sentences and bible bullets that make you feel worse when they don’t work. I do promise that I am praying for you and that I am praying to One who has felt betrayal and abandonment far greater than any you or I can fathom. Please hang on while I go get help.