Do not conform any longer to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God's will is --his good, pleasing and perfect will.
-- Romans 12: 2 (NIV)
The key verse tells us that while
we may be perplexed we will not be driven to despair. Too many Christians walk
around bound by the lies of the enemy. Bound by a sense of guilt that Christ
sought to take away with His work on the cross. We can fail to understand the
enormous gift of grace we have received. Is this a license to sin? Absolutely
not but it should be enough to eradicate confusion because we realize that sin
requires repentance while there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
If we are to avoid despair we must confront confusion by knowing what God's
will for us is. That is found in renewing our mind daily by absorbing His Word
and seeking His face in prayer. We renew our mind against the thinking of this
world and into the Word of God. His will is found in His Word. No confusion at
all. No contradiction. No despair.
Thirdly, we see Paul saying that we
are hunted down. The NIV says persecuted. Picked on. Singled out. Once we claim
the mantle of Christianity we can rest assured that there will be some
persecution. Jesus Himself warned us of just that. Sometimes in our walk we can
get to the place where we feel we are constantly being persecuted. If not by
the world then even within the church. The enemy is the accuser of the
brethren. No one is exempt or immune from it. Sometimes it must feel like we
have a bullseye on our back! Think of
Joseph sold into slavery by his own brothers and then falsely accused of rape
after taking a righteous stand for God. Now he sits and rots in prison for 13
years. Year after year passes. Feeling persecuted? No doubt. But the Apostle
Paul says that while we will feel persecuted we will never be abandoned by God:
But the Lord was with Joseph in
the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison
warden.
Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners
and over everything that happened in the prison. The
warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did
to succeed. -- Genesis 39: 21-23 (NLT)
We read this sometimes and think
that Joseph was now in a country club where he had a better cable package than
the rest of us. Not so! He was still in prison for 13 years for something he
did not do. Falsely accused and imprisoned in a foreign country where if he
ever was released he would still be a slave! Joseph was persecuted to the
extreme but despite the persecution, God never abandoned him. Sometimes when we
are going through our trials and desert experiences we can feel like God has
abandoned us. We can look at the totality of the circumstances instead of how
God is still working on our behalf inside the persecution. I am sure that there
was not a day that went by for 13 years that Joseph did not want out of that
prison yet he was still able to see the hand of God at work. That is where we
need to get ourselves to beloved. Where even within our persecution and trials
we can still see the hand of Almighty God working on our behalf. That gain of
perspective is what leads to a larger gain of perspective. When Joseph was
finally released and made Chief Steward of Pharaoh, he was able to see the big
picture despite the years of suffering and persecution:
But Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid of me.
Am I God, that I can punish you?
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for
good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
No, don't be afraid. I will continue to take care of
you and your children." So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them. --
Genesis 50: 19-21 (NLT)
Joseph was second in command to
Pharaoh only. He could have sought retribution against Potiphar, his wife and
his own family but he saw what God was doing. He knew he was never abandoned. Things
will come against us beloved but God will always be there.
Lastly, Paul says that we get
knocked down as Christians. Pressed, confused and persecuted are all feelings.
Sometimes however, we lose the battle. Sometimes the flesh wins. Sometimes the
world wins. Sometimes the enemy wins. But those are only battles in a long war.
I think sometimes we do a disservice to each other to encourage the notion of
infallibility. We set ourselves up for failure by implying that we cannot fail
because of God. King David was a man after the very heart of God who wrote the
majority of the Psalms. He defeated the nine foot tall Goliath. He led
