February 2001

[Part 100]

“Issues of the heart”

[Part Eighteen]

Hope For the Fearful Heart! [B]

              Have dark clouds of necessary chastenings momentarily enshrouded your HOPE so that your faith in Christ is flagging or even failing altogether? All believers, at some point in their divine disciplinings, will be made to entertain their worst fears and be confronted by great “mountains” of difficulty that are impossible for any flesh mind to surmount! At such times, our Godly vision may be unable to see any way out; then the worst of our carnal nature is flushed out of its hiding place! We cry, shout, moan, pout, and threaten to abandon the way of the cross and our walk with Christ- BUT STILL NOTHING CHANGES! That is because our trials don’t originate in flesh, but Spirit! Each test has a foreordained Beginning and Ending, not subject to the whims of carnal demands!! God knows precisely what our human reactions will be to each set of fiery circumstances He causes to fall and consume our living sacrifice of self; but since our spiritual nature was quickened to life by Christ, the Lord from heaven, the last Adam, we have been made to confront our old flesh nature and challenge our old faith in FLESH!
               Long ago God instructed His prophet, Elijah, to challenge the 450 false prophets of Baal to call on that false god to rain down FIRE and consume their offertory bullock set on a altar of wood. Their first demands went unheeded so they became more vocal; but when still no response came, they grew frenzied and leapt about the altar. Elijah taunted their vain efforts so they resorted to their regular custom of “Slashing their bodies with sharp weapons till blood gushed out!” (1 Kg 18:28) In their fury and frustration, these deceived ones turned on their own flesh! You see, their faith in this false god had never been tested to such limits! They were horrified and humiliated to find he did not possess the power they had attributed to him! It amazes me that when Elijah dared mock these hysterical ones, God prevented the fire of their enflamed hearts from falling on him and consuming him instead of the sacrificial bull!
               God knows that, “No chastening, for the present, seems joyous but grievous [Gk 3077 “Heavy, sorrowful, grudgingly sad”] but afterward it yields peaceable fruit of Righteousness!” (Heb 12:11) Note how the misguided prophets of Baal strove even unto blood to gain his favor, yet God delcares to His people, “You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against your sin! Rather you have forgotten the exhortation I gave to all children (of the kingdom) saying, ‘My son, “Do not despise the chastenings of the Lord! Do not faint (lose heart, fall away) as I rebuke you! I subject you to corrections in Love! I scourge every son I receive to Myself (even innocent Jesus)! So endure your chastenings to the end, knowing that I am dealing with you as My begotten Son!” (Heb 12:4-7) Hold fast to this HOPE, suffering one,! There is ETERNAL PURPOSE in our griefs, distresses, afflictions, agonies, anguish, sorrows, injuries, pains, diseases, or in some places on earth, actual torture just for a living faith in Christ!!
               Try to keep your trials in perspective, beloved. See yourself as a railroad passenger car linked to other cars ahead of you [believers that have successfully traversed the track you now face]. See other cars linked behind you [believers who will soon face what you are going through]. Then note the passengers in your car [those closely related to your life who do not know the Lord, but they are directly affected by what you are going through]!
               The army of Israel was always preceded to battle by musicians and singers whose show of CONFIDENCE IN THEIR GOD was a strong intimidation factor against their enemies! Christ’s Army is directed to sing “Sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing...and to call on the Name of the Lord with continual sacrifices of praise! (Ps 107:22; 116:17) He tells us, “The Fruit of our lips IS our thanksgiving to His Name!” (Heb 13:15) And since “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue, and we must eat the fruit of whichever we love”(Pr 18:21) let us consider what ”fruit” comes forth from our lips in our fiery trials! Is it from the Tree of Life or is it the grapes of wrath from the death-bringing Tree of good and evil? “Hope” may not be one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit, but Faith is, and “Faith is the outward sign of things inwardly hoped for!” (Heb 11:1) So pray, suffering one, to never forsake your hope in the Savior of the world!

[TO BE CONTINUED]