It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Think about it. For the believer, our destination is heaven. But what about between here and there? What is the meaning of life in this world with all of it’s joys and sorrows? God would use the journey. We have a hard time remembering this. We tend to be so destination oriented. It’s like when we jump in our car and head off somewhere and we are so intent on getting where we’re going that we miss what we are supposed to see (or get to) along the way. How often do we find ourselves doing that?
The Bible presents life as a journey and we do well to take note of the purpose of the journey, and not just the destination. If we don’t, then we will miss out on what the journey itself is all about. G. K. Chesterton said, “An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” That’s just one thing that can happen to us when we confuse the journey with the destination.
When the people of Israel were wandering around in the wilderness of Sinai, all they could think about was how everything seemed to be going wrong. Everything seemed to be against them and preventing them from getting to where they were supposed to be going. And yet, the truth of the matter is that God had a purpose in every one of those trials.
You can read through the book of Numbers, especially chapters 11, 14 & 20, and see how the people complained and blamed and quarreled and …
But take a look at what God says through Moses when they came to the end of their journey:
“Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8:2-5
It should be pointed out that God already knew what was in the hearts of the people. But they needed to know. And so do we. Life is a journey, not a destination. And God wants to use the journey to make us. We tend to focus on our circumstances while God’s focus is more on us. We focus on the trials. God is concerned about our response to the trials. We tend to think that our difficulties force us to behave a certain way but God would teach us that all adversity really does is expose the true conditions of our hearts. And all the while, His desire is that we should look to Him for His provision for our needs, especially the needs of our hearts which are by far the greatest.
We need to be committed to self-examination and personal heart change, but most of all we need to understand that everything we need we find in Him. For God does not leave us to ourselves, thankfully. He is ‘an ever present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46:1)
*Please note that the preceding thoughts were contributed to in large part by my reading in ‘How People Change’ by Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp. I highly recommend it to you.
So true Steve, I am sooo thankful God has not left me to my own devices. Without Gods Holy Spirit residing in my heart, I am terrified to think where I would be. God and I have wrestled extensively over the years in regards to my heart attitudes. I have been so humbled and ashamed to realize that out of my heart flows all sorts of evil and that the heart is very decietful! When I hear people say just follow your heart, do what feels right in your heart. I can share from personal experience and scripture DONT. That is a lie, we cannot trust our hearts but only measure everything by the word of God and the Holy Spirit who will never contradict the Word. Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Only God can truly know another persons heart and because of the sinful nature of our hearts we need to be born again in order to be able to fight this sinful nature! Its been an even bigger fight now knowing these things. Just because I have a thought doesn't mean I need to go with it etc... An all out war has broken out in my heart because deep truth has been revealed. I am my worst enemy! I cannot trust my own heart! I need to take my own soul to task! This is hard work that can only be done in the light of Christ.
ReplyDeleteI have wasted much time lamenting over my lifes trials instead of learning from them. Complaining instead of turning to God in prayer and asking Him to reveal the heart lesson in this circumstance. Would trials be less and perhaps not endure so long if we learned our lessons quicker? Why learn everything the hard way? Is it an unspoken rule - that one must learn the hard way? Could we do an experiment then? Lets see if we could learn some lessons the quick way and measure if our lives seem to work a little better!
At times my heart is so tired! Why God? Why does life have to be so hard? When will I ever get a break? Why can't I live the life of Riley? LOL whoever Riley is? But as you said Steve, God knows already the state of our hearts- He needs us to know what state our heart is in! Ive learned that a person can't truly know the shape of their heart until its put in the fire and goes through a refining process. We all like to say or think we would do this or that in a specific situation but the fact is we can't truly know how we would behave or respond in a situation until we personally are living in it! We tend to think way to highly of ourselves. We start comparing our lives with others - like, why do they have it so good or how could that person ever do something like that!? I would never do that! These are all asumptions that are not ours to make. A persons heart is revealed over time and circumstance and I think God would have us love that person through circumstance without comparing and judgement. We could instead pray that God would give us wisdom and that we would respond in a Godly manner should we ever be in such circumstances. Gods word tells us not to compare, not to judge and we have never walked in anothers shoes, we can't possibly know the work God is doing in their heart.
And so, I think also if we never have trials or endure the deep struggle between Spirit and flesh - does God really reside in my heart? If He does have my heart I can expect heart surgery and He can't do complete surgery if I am holding back parts of my heart. Acceptance then becomes the key to peace in trials. I can accept trouble if I know it has an intended purpose. Its when I'm looking for answers to the whys that I have no peace or purpose. Knowing God has great purpose for the state of my heart encourages me to keep moving, this hard work is not all for nothing. This side of heaven is only a fraction of our lives and we have eternal life in store for us and only God knows what condition our heart needs to be in before we get there!
Whew I didn't realize I had so many words today. Oh wait don't women have like 5000 plus words a day that need to get out? LOL
Thanks for your thoughts Rachael. You said, "If He does have my heart I can expect heart surgery and He can't do complete surgery if I am holding back parts of my heart. Acceptance then becomes the key to peace in trials. I can accept trouble if I know it has an intended purpose. Its when I'm looking for answers to the whys that I have no peace or purpose. Knowing God has great purpose for the state of my heart encourages me to keep moving, this hard work is not all for nothing." You said a lot of important things but this is one thing that stands out to me. This is how God brings meaning to our suffering. Thanks for sharing and now you only have about 4000 words left to go!
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