In evangelical Christianity we live for the emotional highs in our walk with the God. We think that we are close to God when he's actively moving in our lives and we can feel His hand moving moment by moment through the day. We worry when something out of the ordinary is not happening each and every day. Is my faith right, am I praying enough, am I loving my neighbor, am I right with God?
In a culture that embraces action films, romances, and adrenaline perhaps we look at Hebrews 11:32-35 NIV and despair of ever living up to these heroes of the faith such as,
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
The reality though is that they did not reach this point through efforts of their own initiative or faith. Rather it was the preparation process that God took them through which prepared them.
Abraham spent twenty-five plus years in Iran before being giving the slightest notion of the nation of Israel. Moses grew up the heir to the throne of the global superpower, but herded sheep in the deserts of the central middle-east for forty years. David spent ten years or more as an outlaw hiding out from King Saul. Esther grew up as peasant or merchant's daughter before being made queen. Jesus was a carpenter building carts, chairs, and tables for people. Mathew was a Roman IRS agent. Peter was a commercial fisherman. Paul attended Ivy League Schools, became a terrorist, and then got sent into the desert for several years to straighten up. John was a fisherman who met Jesus, wrote few letters and then got marooned on an island. Instead of dying, He received a MA from God, at 90 years old in International Relations in Middle Eastern affairs and the end of the world.
It's tough waiting. It's tough being faithful in the midst of the ugliness of daily chaos, hurt, and despair. Been there, done that, got multiple T-shirts. The prophets we were talking about earlier,
faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Heb 11:36-38 NIV
But there is hope -
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:11 NIV
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