by Jacob Ninan
We can see all over the world that many Christians, including leaders, are falling away from their faith. This is an indication that we are near the end of this world when the Antichrist will appear and deceive many (2Thes.2:3). The reasons why this is happening are several. Overall, the pressures of life are increasing for all people in different forms. Many people are perplexed with questions in their mind that do not find answers. Some people have been depending on their feelings or experiences to relate to God without walking with Him with faith and understanding. The lure of wealth or pleasure has been pulling people away from what they consider as mere theoretical and doctrinal positions they have been holding to. The great apostasy which the Bible warns us about is coming, and we have to be all the more careful to make sure that we can persevere in our relationship to God.
Abraham is now known as the father of faith for everyone who believes in God. When he was 75 years old and his wife and he could not have any children, God gave him a promise that He would give the land where he was staying to his children after him. Later, when he still could not have any children, Abraham thought that perhaps Eliezer, his servant, would become his heir. But God reiterated His promise and clarified that Abraham's own children will be numberless (Ge.15:1-6). What made Abraham great was that he believed in God that what He had said would happen.
Abraham got his son Isaac only many years later, when he was 100 years old and his wife Sarah 90. In the meantime he battled in his mind in the area of faith. On one side was the promise of God, and on the other he realised that his body was as good as dead when it came to having children (Rom.4:18-21). His victory did not come without struggle or even failure. At one time, he listened to his wife telling him to have a child through her servant Hagar and that led him to Ishmael which turned out to be a huge mistake. But Abraham did not give up his faith in God's promise and finally he received Isaac.
Our life of faith is not an easy or smooth path. We too have our struggles between what God has promised and the circumstances we go through. Our challenge is to hold on to God even when we cannot figure things out and when things go differently to our expectations. Our Christian life will be full of challenges on a daily basis, and we should not imagine that it is all about the excitement of praise and worship on Sundays. Speaking to believers in Christ, God warns us not to allow an evil heart of unbelief to creep into our heart which can ultimately take us away from Him (Heb.3:12).
Everyone faces practical challenges in different areas of life such as finance, job, marriage, sickness, relationships, studies, etc. Then we are tempted to wonder about the love of God which we have been assuming on till then. Even questions such as whether God actually exists, whether our experiences with Him have been imaginary, whether something is wrong with us, etc., start popping up in our mind. If we don't know how to deal with these by ourselves, and we don't also seek help from others who are more experienced, we might end up giving up on God.
Spiritual challenges can be extremely severe because they attack the core of our faith and we may get shaken up badly in ways which we had never expected. Just as Satan attacked Jesus with temptations when He was worn out after forty days of fasting in the desert, Satan may also look out for our weak moments and then mount an attack on our faith.
Why are bad things happening to me?
Many people have the idea that it is to bad people that bad things happen and that if we are children of God who are generally trying to live a good life we should not be going through bad situations. But this is not true. Because we are living in this world which is suffering the consequences of sin, all of us will be facing difficulties of different types. Our own past sins may cause us consequences and evil men may do wrong to us too. Just think of Job who was the most upright man of his time, and yet in one day he lost all his children and wealth. Soon after that he got a troublesome disease also. His friends thought that there must be some sin in his life, but he was not aware of any. Look at what suffering Jesus went through, even though He was the sinless Son of God. Let us encourage ourselves thinking of the many ways in which God has helped us in the past (1Sam.7:12), and most of all, let us think of the great love that God has demonstrated towards us on Calvary. This is how we can hold on to our faith in God.I prayed so much!
There are many preachers who promise their hearers saying that all they have to do when they are in difficulty is to pray to God and that God will always answer their prayer. Some people fast when they pray, and others ask many others to pray for them, and then they assume that God ought to answer such prayers. But God as our Father is much wiser than we are, and He knows better than we do about what is good for us. By faith we can hand over the keeping of our life to Him knowing that even when we cannot understand what is going on, He knows what He is doing (Isa.55:9). When we continue to trust Him in this way, He uses even the difficult circumstances to teach us eternal lessons and to mould us into His image (2Cor.4:15-18).I can't get victory!
Victory is not automatic just because we have become children of God. Just as we chose earlier to sin in order to enjoy its pleasures, now we have to choose to overcome in temptations in order to enjoy the fruit of victory. First of all, we must believe that God wants to give us victory in every area of our life in our deeds, words and thought (1Jn.5:4). We must take responsibility for our sins and stop blaming others or our circumstances for our failure. If we give in to sin when we are tempted, we must realise that it will lead us to spiritual death (Rom.8:13). We need to depend on the Holy Spirit to teach us how to overcome and to give us strength. Then we will become able to deny ourselves when we are tempted and to choose to do the will of God (Rom.6:13,14). We need to recognise that sometimes due to our experiences in our childhood which have warped our personality or because we have been indulging ourselves in sin for long periods, it takes us a long time to learn the way of victory. But the key is to hold on to the promise of God and not to give up hope.Is there a curse on my family?
This is a question that comes to many when there are troubles which seem to last in spite of prayer because of a wrong teaching that came up based on Exo.20:5,6 which says that for those who hated God, their iniquity would be visited on their children up to the third or fourth generations. Modern translations have translated this to mean that children will be inflicted with the punishment for their fathers' sins. But we should know that this cannot be true when we know about God's justice and righteousness. Also, God has said very clearly that children will not suffer punishment for their fathers' sins (Ezek.18:20). We should also know that even though all of us deserve God's curses because we have not kept all of the Law, God, after forgiving us, has placed under His blessings (Gal.3:10-14). We are under God's blessings in such a way that we can become a blessing to others around us too (Gal.3:6-9)! How can God be blessing us and cursing us at the same time? We can now see that 'visiting of iniquity on the children' cannot be referring to punishment but to the natural consequences of the fathers' sins which children also face. God is working in us even through them by drawing us to Himself and teaching us to depend entirely on Him because His plans for us are only for our good (Jer.29:11).Many Christians are hypocrites!
This is true, and this is one reason why God's name is being dishonoured among unbelievers. One reason for this sad state of affairs is that many preachers have twisted the Gospel for their own gain and given many people an impression that they have become Christians when actually they have not. Without having been born again, these so-called 'Christians' go through the motions of attending church, Bible studies, prayer meetings, etc., and others watching them see the inconsistency in their lives. But just because there are people like this, does it mean that the Gospel itself is not true or that Christianity is bogus? No. Now it is up to us to make sure that we have understood and responded to the true form of the Gospel, repented from our sins and received salvation as a gift of grace from God. Ultimately it is for our own life that we are accountable to God (Rom.14:12).Experiencing God
Faith is based on facts we know about God which we believe and submit to. Eastern religions pursue God in different forms as the ultimate source of pleasure. Unfortunately, many Christians also assume that the thrill they experience when they participate in praise and worship meetings is the experience of the presence of God. But we can easily understand that similar kinds of mental pleasure can also come from secular programmes. But when we actually experience the presence of God, what it should do for us is to convict us about our sinfulness and encourage us to leave sin and to cling to God (1Cor.14:24,25).Feelings can vary
Think of Elijah on Mount Carmel who exalted God over the false god Baal and then immediately afterwards fell into depression when Queen Jezebel threatened to take his life. This kind of mood swings can happen to any of us because of changes in circumstances, physical tiredness, hormone changes, sickness, etc. We must not then jump to the conclusion that God must have left us or that there is no hope for us. Even godly people experience this kind of situations when they feel inadequate in themselves and attribute that to God's displeasure or their sinfulness. But this is just a passing phase of our life on earth. If only we learn to trust in God who we cannot see and not in our circumstances which we can see, we can pass through such times with triumph (2Cor.4:18).As difficult times are ahead of us, it is all the more important to get know God personally and understand more of His ways. When we read the Bible we can face it as a mirror to show us what God thinks about our life and then take steps to make changes in the way we think and behave. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to strengthen, help, teach, comfort and to guide us in our daily life. Let us develop a real relationship with Him and submit to what He tells us.