Strength Renewed

I’ve been seeing a lot of comments about church hurt. Trust me, I get it. I do. My own church as a teenager hurt me terribly in a time of complete despair. I turned away from “the church” for many years.

Surely, if God loved me, He would surround me with loving people, right?

Wrong.

We are all surrounded by human beings who have fallen short of the glory of God. They’re going to screw up. But that goes for any circle you’re in, whether in a church or not.

Also, we have a terrific enemy who is cunning and sly. Satan is not some dumb red monster with a pitchfork and a toddler’s brain. He is enticing, a genius, and he’s watching you constantly. He knows your weaknesses. He also knows when you’ve made the decision to try and turn your life around. Do you honestly think he would “allow that”?

Of course not.

But he’s not going to make it obvious. Not all the time.

Sometimes it is going to look like wandering in the wilderness. Even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, found Himself in the wilderness. Matthew 4 discusses how Jesus had just been baptized and then He was LED BY THE SPIRIT into the wilderness. Wait, what?!

He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

So maybe we are supposed to consider it a good thing when we face trials of various kinds… oh wait, James 1:2-4.

Let us consider this then, if all have fallen short of the glory of God, if anyone is capable of telling lies and wearing sheep’s clothing, if Satan is capable of using any circumstance to bring you down… then dare I say this: Satan can be in any church, no matter “how strong” the congregation is.

Dare I say this even further…  Perhaps Satan is there to test your faith. And you failed the perseverance test.

I’m sorry… but are we supposed to abide in church or abide in Christ?

Everyone, definitely myself included, misses the mark! There is not one perfect, no, not one. Being a Christian doesn’t automatically change that either.

Does this excuse their behavior? No, of course not. But Jesus paid the debt. We are supposed to abide in Christ so that we can each learn how to do better, but we all will fail at times because we naturally lean towards a sinful nature. So instead, we learn how to grow in His grace and steward it well.

I grew up in such a twisted, perverted sense of the so-called purity culture that when something happened against my will, no one in my church saw the hurt child… they only could see the lost purity. Is that wrong? Yes. Is it unbiblical? Yes: we are called to forgive, to help, to love, to let God do the judging… but the Bible also says that all fall short, so shouldn’t I have expected them to screw up when being faced with such an emotional circumstance? I couldn’t see past my own hurt at the time though. And my faith failed the test at the time. Instead of turning to God in my time of distress, I turned away and I got lost for several years. When I finally turned to Him however, I found a God who held my heart in His hands and was ready to heal it completely, to restore what was lost.

That’s God.

Man will always fall short. Man will always find a way to hurt you. Evil exists in this world due to free will and although God could force His ways upon us, He doesn’t. God knows there’s something bigger than our temporary pain and circumstances. That’s not to say that He doesn’t care about our pain. That’s to say that God can see the bigger picture that we can’t see, and He can see the purpose for our pain. I don’t know about you but that gave me extreme joy, to know that I don’t have to endure that pain for no reason.

There's a purpose for my pain.

“What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” ~ Genesis 50:20

As much as we can rely on man to fail us, we can rely on the truth that God never will. Don't abide in church, abide in Christ. Don't turn to man for your strength, turn to God.

God does tell us however, to unite as His body. That we should find a place to be in fellowship. When we are abiding in Christ, turning to God for our strength and acknowledging that the church is filled with broken people just like you, perhaps we can shift our perspective. To see church as a practice for ministry, to encourage, love and uplift even when it's difficult. Sometimes we will be touched by someone else's ministry there in the church, we will hear God's words spoken on human lips, our hearts may be prompted by the love of our fellow brother or sister in Christ. Other times we may have to learn how to put Matthew 18:15-20 into practice, how to forgive and work through differences, to agree to disagree on minor offenses and choose to love despite it all. 

1 Corinthians 12 gives a fantastic representation that the church is to practice using the gifts that the Holy Spirit is working through us. It is where we can learn to work together as a unit so as to better influence the world. So, if you feel like you can't find your place in one building, try another, but never stop trying to find where God is calling you to work. And I pray you find your place to blossom and grow, that you don't grow weary of doing good.

Weariness. Exhaustion. 

I have no idea what’s been going on in my body lately. I’ve been feeling a level of exhaustion that makes me feel dead on my feet all the time. I am so tired I feel like a toddler as I begin to cry for no reason. To top it off, I have been unable to find medical help because I don’t have an established primary care physician and there’s a six month waiting list everywhere. So I’ve decided for myself that I can “slack” on my daily devotions so I can get extra sleep. I feel like I could sleep for days. I know my diet may not be helpful right now either. Our fridge went out and we are unable to get fresh meat and veggies as often as usual because we have no way to keep them good in this Texas heat. I trust these things will all work out, they are all temporary pains after all. God has a plan and He has not failed us yet. 

In the meantime it kinda sucks, I won’t lie. 

However, this morning I was woken up in the most hilarious of ways. I had no alarm set because I had a very exhausting long day yesterday and figured I could sleep in. I had turned on some white noise on my phone when my husband left for work because the white noise we usually use is on his phone. But two hours after he left I was quietly and gently woken by a strange occurrence when the song changed. I don’t listen to Beyonce and the album I was listening to was much longer than two hours but the lyrics popped up “I can see the stars all the way from here, can’t you see the glow on your window pane, I can feel the sun whenever you’re near… nothing’s perfect but it’s worth it after fighting through my tears and finally you put me first… you put my love on top.” Granted, the song was written for a lover. But I love that it was not a song I have ever heard or listened to before because if it was I could figure my phone just decided to “get feisty”. But no, it was completely random and not even related to the album I was listening to. 

It’s hard to call it a “coincidence” but I know some will find a way to argue it as such. 

I think that’s the beauty of being a little more accustomed to the shepherd’s voice, I can test and prove what is from the Lord. I know there is no condemnation in Christ, only conviction. And I can hear the love and humor in some of my “daily coincidences”. Gentle God nods.  

I have a texted devotional I read first thing when I open my phone along with my Bible app and that just seemed to convince me even more this morning that God was trying to get my attention. The text was about how God is observing my ways, and although I can’t make Him love me more or less by how I conduct my life, perhaps knowing He’s watching should encourage me to make better choices (Psalm 33:13-15). Then my Bible App continued this conviction rage with Galatians 6:9 “let us not grow weary of doing good” and the first question on the guided scripture devotional was “do you remember the last time you were completely exhausted?” Hardy harhar! Then it spoke on how this verse was written by Paul to the Galatians during some very difficult situations and how it was Paul encouraging them to not give up. Ok, God, I hear you!

“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.”

~ Galatians 6:9

Anyone who says God isn’t speaking to them simply has not practiced on how to hear Him. When we keep our life inputs godly and positive we start to see these scarlet threads that weave together messages throughout the day if we are listening and paying attention. That is God. 

I was being prompted that I need to quit trying to rely on my own strength or in my case, my lack thereof. I need to rely on God’s strength so that I may not give up on choosing to abide in His word. See I didn’t give up daily devotionals entirely. Those things on my phone occur every morning. Although they are positive inputs, they are not an “abiding in His word”. 

There is a difference between “doing” your daily reading and “being” in the Word of God. 

Abiding is a choice to tarry. Some may call it a waste of time. But honestly it’s the most important thing you can do with your time. Some may say that they have no time and yet they have time to doom scroll on social media. What are you choosing to tarry in? How is that affecting your life?

When Jesus found Himself in the wilderness, did you note how He stood the test?

He stood on the Word of God.

Satan tempted Jesus with the promises of provision, protection and power. How many humans can say those promises aren’t what tempts them too? Have you sacrificed abiding in Christ for these same “promises”?

“Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ~ Matthew 4:4

Shepherds tend to flock together, there’s power in numbers they say and so they bring the sheep to the same hilltops and have lunch together as the sheep graze. Some may think that would create chaos for the time to leave. How do you get all those sheep to separate and go to their own home? The sheep know their shepherd’s voice. See, these sheep were raised by these shepherds, they are with him every day of their lives and so when he calls out “let’s go home” they follow their shepherd. Even when all the shepherds call out at once, in the chaotic noise, those sheep still hear their shepherd’s voice. Who are you spending the most time with? When you find yourself on that wilderness hilltop, which voice will you be most accustomed to?

Abiding with Christ means that even in the chaotic noise of life you can still hear your Shepherd’s voice, when He prompts you to get up you can lean on His strength and rise, when others try to harm you trust Him more.

My son lost his temper and we sat and we spoke on why we lose our tempers. Most of the time, it’s because we can’t control the situation we are in. I reminded him of Joseph, who was sold by his own brothers, accused of things when he was innocent, endured a dark prison cell for years, had a promise broken and endured even more years in prison before he ever was actually heard. And when he faced the brothers who ruined his life, they didn’t even recognize him! He had every right to be angry and instead he said: 

“What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” ~ Genesis 50:20

The church may hurt you, the world may hurt you, your own family may hurt you… we cannot control the situations we are in. But we can control our responses. This desperate grasping for control is born of fear. The fear of the world and what it may do to us. When we trust God and fear Him most of all, we know that no matter the situation God is still on our side and He is bigger than anything of the world. That means we can know no matter what is happening, He still has our back!

Abide in Christ and discover the abundant life He has for you. Abundancy not defined by temporary things, but of things beyond our wildest imaginations. 

Oh, the wonders you will find.

Forging Warriors Ministry is written by Zerah Crawford as an attempt to encourage, uplift and prompt warriors being forged by Christ in the fires of this world. Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this read: please like, comment, share or follow. It truly does help my page get into the feeds of new people and hopefully continue to share the love and hope of Jesus Christ on social media.