See the Good that has Come

Ok folks, enough! Enough grumbling about the will of God. What He has allowed, He wants us to accept and look for the good in it. Even if you see recent events as God’s discipline, the truth is that whatever He allows in the life of His children is intended for their good – our good.

There is a description in Jeremiah 17:5-6 of believers who are disoriented to the good that God intends for them. This description begins with a discussion about wrongly directed beliefs and the fruit of these wrong ideas in the believer’s life. Let’s look at this passage:

Jeremiah 17:5-6 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart departs from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like a bush in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

This believer has directed their faith, their trust, their dependence toward mankind rather than God. This person believes that their happiness and their solutions to life’s challenges are found in the realm of human power and ability. The strength this believer depends upon is the flesh. This describes someone totally focused on the things of this life and this earth. This person is materialistic and believes, unlike Jesus, that life consists of one’s possessions and that man has the ability to find contentment apart from God. We know it is apart from God because Jeremiah tells us that when you trust in man, it causes your heart to depart from the Lord.

The result of attaching faith to man, making human ability your means of dealing with life and your heart rejection the Lord, is found in verse 6. Your life is like a bush in the desert. Bushes need water in order to thrive and grow. The believer who rejects the Lord cannot access the nourishment He provides for you to thrive and grow. Life will be like living in parched places in the wilderness. The phrase that stands out to me is the phrase, “shall not see good when it comes”. That idea is my discussion for the moment.

Almost all of my friends are politically conservative and so am I. I do not belong to a party but my views align much more with the Republicans than the Democrats. All I have heard since the night of the election is how bad this is. The rhetoric continues with complaints about how we are moving toward socialism and the evils of high taxes. Ok, I understand from a human, earthly, materialistic, self focused perspective, that the election is going to bring hardship to many. Many more than liberal thinkers even imagine. If Congress raises taxes as discussed by Obama, it could stick a knife in our economy. Already today the news is full of big corporations cutting thousands of jobs. Many, and I mean very many not only got a new president but also received help in finding a new career.

Now! we have expressed our pain. Please pretend that we have nodded with compassion to one another and expressed the appropriate oohs and aahs. Now it is time to let go of our earthly perspective and see the incredible gift that God has laid in our laps.

Those who are complaining about the political situation are not seeing the good that has come to us as Christians. God has allowed liberal, God rejecting, immoral, baby killing and socialistic people to come to power in the earthly realm. Listen to the last phrase, “in the earthly realm” and only in the earthly realm. These folks, when they have been allowed to run the country for a time, will be exposed for their true hearts. In addition, the fruit of their ideas will also be exposed by the negative results they will bring. The spiritual void in the lives of these people will be exposed. We should be praying that God will expose their Godless hearts. When this happens, it will highlight the spiritual vacuum in the hearts of all those who are putting their trust in the strength of man. Those who thought that Obama was the savior will be deeply disappointed. My prayer is that God will expose the spiritual void in the hearts of our new leaders and all those who voted for them. By putting these same people under the extreme pressure of leading the people, having made so many impossible and dramatic promises, their foolishness will become evident to all.

The liberal, human centered agenda will fail to live up to its press. No matter what little material advances the minorities and the poor are given, it will not satisfy their hearts. All of the false hope that has been raised will come crashing down to reveal the fallacy of trusting in man. This will be our time. The disillusionment that is coming will motivate many to seek answers beyond politics and materialism. Those believers who have been prepared through prayer and understanding and purified through suffering will be ready to reach out with the good news of the gospel. This election is a gift to those of us who are not as concerned with our capital gains rate as we are with those who need Christ to avoid the Lake of Fire. Prepare yourself to minister to a nation under great economic suffering.

James commands us to hegeomai when adversity hits us (Jam 1:2). Hegeomai, as I have been writing and speaking tells us to use our imagination to visualize the good that God intends when He allows adversity in our lives. As I am seeking to obey this command, I am visualizing the exposure of evil and the opportunity to speak to the real solutions. Rather than envision all of the earthly losses that might come from this election, I choose to envision the spiritual good that might come from it. Not only see it and say it in my mind, but visualize scenarios of the good happening and see myself in the middle of it enjoying a renewed spiritual hunger in the nation. Let me propose a strategy for those who are willing to be part of the solution.

First, it is time to pray. It is time to appeal to the throne of grace for a spiritual revival in our nation. I have prayed this before as I know many of us have. It is time to speak directly and consistently to our Lord and ask Him to be merciful to those who need Christ.
Second, It is time to be purified. It is time for God’s people to surrender their hearts to Him so that he can empower us to live like God’s people. It is time to take off our old man beliefs that continue to cause us to live like unbelievers. Most of us are still in the grip of our past. The pain of our past has caused us to shut down our hearts, go through the motions and pretend that we are living like Christ. There is a huge credibility gap between the church and the world. On this website is a study called Transformation Workbook which is my attempt to teach us how this works.

Third, it is time for all of us to preach. By preach, I don’t mean stand on corners. I mean that all of us must become sensitive to the suffering of those around us and offer them the solutions found in Christ. As spiritual leaders it is time to prepare our people to take the gospel to the streets and share the love of God with our neighbors.

The next articles I write will speak to these three areas. I am going to open the scriptures to discuss prayer, purification and preaching the word.

I ask you to stop generating negative images and visualize the good that God intends to bring out of this. Envision a people who have been shaken awake for a brief moment. Visualize yourself as prepared and ready to boldly give the message. See a revival that will change the direction of our nation and present that vision to God.

Father, I ask you now to expose the spiritual void of these new leaders and those who have trusted in them. I ask you to shake us awake. I also ask you to prepare your people for that brief moment when these people wake up. Purify us Father! Make us willing to let you free our hearts so that you can shine through us. Make our lives so real that the people can see Christ in us. Give us the wisdom to make the gospel real and relevant to this generation. I believe it and am visualizing it now.