Tag: Grace

Open book, ceramic mug, and glasses on a wooden table during a misty sunrise.
Tetelestai Recovery

The Complexity of Faith: Why Some Feel Abandoned by God’s Promises

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Open book, ceramic mug, and glasses on a wooden table during a misty sunrise.

We sometimes wonder, “If God’s word is true, why are there people living without hope? Why wouldn’t His promise apply to everyone across the board?”

The answer is deeply complex. The reason God’s promises are not fulfilled is because His words rely on someone laying claim to them. These fantastic promises of God are often hard to believe for ourselves. Sure, we believe God is good, but we also know that we aren’t. We believe He does great things for good people, but it seems a bit presumptuous to expect the same blessings as someone who was busy doing great things for God while we were selfishly making a mess of our lives. We know the Bible talks about penalties for bad behavior, so it seems that if we believe in the blessings, we must also fear the curses.

That may have been a valid statement before the cross. But we live under Grace, not Law. Jesus broke the power of the curse, so we can all live in the blessing if we choose to believe it. We need not fear the curse or the consequences of our own mistakes. Those issues have been resolved. We are in a continual state of cleansing, like standing beneath a waterfall. Even a sin committed one second ago, is already washed away in the living water. We live exclusively in the blessings and enjoy firm standing on the promises. Curses do not cling to us. Blessings chase us down…

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Tetelestai Recovery

A New Brag

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Paul had a messenger of Satan he referred to as a thorn in the flesh. He realized it was to keep him from becoming conceited, but still he asked God to remove it. He asked three times and each time, God told him His grace was sufficient. On that third ask, Paul finally realized there was a higher purpose for the thorn.

He was quite the achiever. He was a writer, and activist, a preacher, and the recipient of divine revelation. Those are some heady titles. Anyone in his position would struggle with arrogance.

Before his conversion, Paul had been a well-educated, well-connected, influential person. Perhaps he had an ego problem all his life. He was ambitious about his political career and eager to gain social standing by stopping the Christian movement. As a Roman citizen, educated in the Pharisaical law, he could advance his political pursuits in the eyes of the religious leaders while also remaining a loyalist to the Roman government. Snuffing out the Jesus movement would have brought him the promotion and respect he deserved.

But as he sat in a prison cell, frustrated with a messenger of Satan, he couldn’t think of anything he’d like more that to have God take it away.

We wonder if this messenger of Satan was one of the guards at the prison. Maybe they had worked together when Paul was a Christian bounty hunter, and the guard was now taunting him about being ‘one of them’. Perhaps the messenger of Satan was another prisoner. Perhaps the thorn was a conspiracy theory that Paul was a double agent, and the Damascus conversion was a clever lie to get the early Christians to trust him so he could infiltrate their secret communities and advance his political career.

No matter who or what his thorn in the flesh was, it caused Paul a great deal of distress. But God said, “My grace is sufficient. It is made perfect in your weakness.”

So, the guy who was prone to conceit found a new brag. He would brag about his own weakness so the grace of Christ could be the driving force behind all he would accomplish. It was hard on his ego, but good for his soul.

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