05/23/18 - Acts 14

May 23, 2018

Paul was strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. Acts 14:22

All good things take work, so growing a relationship with God will be the greatest work of all.

Imagine how Paul must have felt on his first missionary journey.  He was seeing God create new churches out of nothing – in places he likely had never visited.  All around him daily was the hand of God doing miracles in his life … yet with that were the bitter pains of people’s words and actions.  How could the God who wanted Paul to start churches also permit stoning and attacks to His servant?

In the midst of these extremes, Paul had the insight (or maybe prompting), to quote a statement that we prefer to avoid.  “It takes hardship to grow the Kingdom of God”.  While we may see that for everyone else, we question that for ourselves!   We want to protect the new believer from ANY risk or challenge, making it as easy as possible to be a new believer.  We want our kids to be kept safe and never have to feel any pain.  We prefer that God would meet our needs (and our wants), versus having to sacrifice anything to support His agenda.  We are like customers in the drive-through line at McDonald’s, wanting things made for us ‘our way’, and fast.

Hardship is the only way faith grows stronger.  Like the palm trees along the coast that handle the near-hurricane force winds, we must be tested harder to grow deeper.  Moses had his years in the desert, David was on the run from Saul, Jonah was caught by a fish, Jeremiah laid on his side for weeks, and even Jesus had 40 days in the desert as well as a cross to bear.  Why would we be any different?

These days, if the work becomes too hard at a church, we just jump ship to the more comfortable church down the street.  If devotions are too hard, we look for a tool that makes it quicker.  If serving takes too much time, we drop it for a season.  Stop following the crowds on easy street and start seeking the narrow gate!  Our faith is only as deep as our struggle – so take up the struggle instead of running from it.

Taking up the struggle IS the thing people recognize later.  Later is when they look at you and say “how did you make it through those tough times?”.  Later is when you realize the blessings that came with the pain.  Later is when you hear the words of Jesus saying “well done”.  Permit God to use this struggle now, knowing there is something coming Later!

Before getting married, I heard from MANY how marriage is hard work.  That’s not very believable when people are feeling in love, but becomes evident when you try to do life together!  I would say that it’s not marriage that’s hard work, but growing together that’s hard work.  If growing a relationship takes work, then growing a relationship with an Almighty God will be the greatest work of all!  Expect struggle, but know that God is using it to make you stronger.