God is incrementally, systematically, and purposely putting you to death Counseling Solutions

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God is incrementally, systematically, and purposely putting you to death Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:05 PM PDT God is working to undermine you so you will be able to trust Him. Exhibit A: The Apostle Paul had a hard life. He endured many hardships because he knew Christ. It is important that you understand this: knowing Christ does not give you the option to forgo suffering. The truth is, knowing Christ ensures personal suffering. For Paul, suffering was not a reality to spurn, but it was the means God used to strengthen him.[1] For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves…. – 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 (ESV) Paul’s reality gives us a great point to ponder: What animates the center of your thinking? Is it your amazement at knowing Christ and being known by Him? Is it your personal longings for a better kind of life? That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. – Philippians 3:10 (ESV) Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. – John 12:24 (ESV) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20 (ESV) Knowing Christ and being able to tell others about Christ was the purpose of Paul’s life. His purpose was not to overcome his problems, but to leverage his problems as a means to put Christ on display. Suffering is a mystery that God gives to all of us so we can understand Him more clearly. Equipped with this kind of understanding, we are able to enjoy a deeper maturity in Him. Maturity is not attained by making suffering go away. Maturity comes when God is found in the suffering. Celebrating recovery or celebrating transformation? One of the unintended consequences of the biblical counseling movement is that some people come to counseling hoping to get rid of their problems. Many counselors succumb to this expectation, “feeling a pressure” to help counselees remove their problems from their lives. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." – 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (ESV) Imagine if the great apostle Paul came to you with a thorn in his flesh. You knew that he was a deeply spiritual man, loved God with his whole heart, and was doggedly determined to tell others about Christ. Furthermore, he told you about his problem and how he had committed it to prayer, asking God to remove the thorn in his flesh. Now he has come to you because he wants help getting rid of it. Here is what you do not know: God is not, will not, cannot, and should not remove this thorn from Paul’s life. Paul will live the rest of his life with a thorn in his flesh. That is God’s irrevocable will for Paul. But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. – Job 23:13-14 (ESV) The Bible was not written so we can celebrate recovery. The celebration in the Scriptures is Jesus Christ who transforms us through the power of the Gospel. He did not come to necessarily give us great marriages, disease-free bodies, and financial freedom.[2] Though there are benefits to living godly while humbly applying the truths of the Word of God to your life, we are not promised the problem-free priorities and expectations that our world craves. Our culture is trying to figure out how to overcome through therapy. The God-centered Christian has found a better way, which is celebrating the transformation that comes when we are shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Whether we ever overcome our problems according to our culture’s cravings is not a priority for the biblical man or woman. Suffering in this life is not the thing we are taught to escape. The biblical realist knows that suffering cannot be escaped. Escaping suffering and having a good life, according to the culture’s interpretation of good, is not be the point of the Christian life. One of the bigger problems with the counseling movement is that it suggests you can get help for your problems and the implied help that you receive through counseling is an expectation that your problems will go away. Disciplers, pastors, counselors, and any other Christian who comes alongside another Christian must be clearer than this. A biblical counselor will not seek primarily to help you get rid of your problems, but seek to help you find Christ in your problems. It could be that God wants you to keep your thorn in the flesh because that is the best way for you to put His Son on display. It could be that God wants you to get rid of your thorn in the flesh because that is the best way for you to put His Son on display. The issue for you and me should not be about to have or not to have. Our main goal should be to put His Son on display regardless of how God chooses to accomplish it. Which are you more interested in: (1) Putting God’s name on display through your suffering, (2) or getting rid of your suffering whether God is glorified through your suffering or not? To have or not to have: that is not the question The promise of the therapeutic culture is to get rid of your problems. The promise of God is to find strength through your weaknesses. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV) A wonderful relationship, a great job, and financial security are awesome, but Christ did not come to give us these things. Jesus Christ came to die on a cross to give us an example of how we can walk in His footsteps. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. - 1 Peter 2:21 (ESV) When sin came into our world, violence, disease, and corruption came along with it. Bad things happen to bad people. We’re all bad (Romans 3:10-12). Christ did not come to die in order to change violence, disease, and corruption in the world we live. Though the death and resurrection of the Savior has slowed down the onslaught of sin, that was not the point of His Gospel. His point was to give us His life, so we could be in Him, while looking forward to a better world to come (Hebrews 11:10). Our strength, glory, hope, and praise is found in God rather than in perfect relationships and healthy bodies. It’s our unwillingness to embrace this theology of suffering that allows discouragement and depression to come. The longer it takes a person to understand, embrace, and find mature joy in our sufferings, the more susceptible they will be to discouragement and even depression. Our therapeutic culture has an anti-suffering message. They live in a fantasy world and they want you to buy into their fantasy. And they are always there for you with their ubiquitous association with the pharmaceutical industry.[3] If your goal is to rid yourself of your problems and their meds do not work or if a divorce does not give you a more favorable outcome, then you may become depressed, all the while missing the Christological point of your life. I am curious: How have the commercials about medication and the hope of your best life now influenced your thinking regarding your personal struggles? Can you perceive how the therapeutic industry has seeped into your thinking and weakened your theology of suffering? You can measure how you think about these types of questions by how you respond to the evil that is in your life. If you have peace, hope, and rest in the midst of your deepest trials, then their best life now mandate does not drive your longings. Are your deepest longings wrapped around the hope of celebrating recovery or are your deepest longings wrapped around celebrating transformation because of your sufferings? God is looking for a few weak men …and women If you’re going to walk with God, then it is not your strength that God is going to use. He can’t. He won’t. He will not compete with you. God works through weakness and brokenness. It is through your weakness that His strength is perfected in you. However, if your main purpose in life is to be healthy and wealthy, then you will be working counter to the purposes of God and your frustrations will mount. You may need to take medication if you persist in resisting God’s suffering-centric plans for you. This does not mean that being sick, poor, and having dysfunctional relationships is the only way to be strengthened by God. The issue is celebrating Christ regardless of your circumstances. We should never pursue being better, according to our preferences, but to pursue Christ even if that pursuit is contrary to our preferences. You cannot make yourself better no matter what resources you secure if your main goal is to have a dream that is not put forth in the Bible. The only way you can be strong, is by living in God’s strength, not your own. The only way you can truly overcome is by celebrating God’s strength through your weakness, brokenness, sickness, and poverty. Let me reiterate: I am not saying you should contract HIV in order to be strong. I’m not saying you should intentionally become bankrupt in order to “recover.” I’m saying that our circumstances, whatever they are, become a means to find God’s strength, hope, peace, and contentment. It could be that God will choose to “raise you from negative circumstances,” but, again, that cannot be your first and most important desire. Your first and most important desire must be to die in Christ, so He can bring forth fruit from your death (John 12:24). The beginning of this process of embracing death for the glory of God begins in prayer, as you seek an incremental, systematic, and purposeful death in Christ (Galatians 2:20). God is working to undermine you so you will be able to trust Him. You will have to let go of your strength in order to hold on to His strength. Here is a sample prayer from the Valley of Vision prayerbook that may help you to see these deep truths: The Valley of Vision Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley. [1] I’m speaking of God’s strength here, not Paul’s. ↩ [2] I am using the term “celebrate recovery” as a metaphor, not as a formal critique of any organization or program. ↩ [3] This is not an anti-medication message. I have written extensively on the use of medication on our Membership Site. The benefits of medication is not the point of this article. ↩

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