Trials and Tribulations

I realize that especially lately I seem to have been focusing a lot on "works" and on obedience to God. Obedience is important and i don't want to minimize that, especially since today's churches seem to tend to leave obedience totally out of their sermons. But we are not called to simply "obey God" when we are saved. That's what the old covenant was. In the new covenant, we are instead called into a personal love relationship with God. Now that doesn't mean that obedience gets thrown out the window, but it does mean that our focus is on our relationship with Him, not our works.

Jude 1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:

Jude is speaking to us. We have each been called and we are each loved by God and we are each "kept" by Jesus. Did you catch that the first time you read that verse? I know I didn't! I didn't catch it the first 200 times I read the verse! It says that we are kept by Jesus! What does that mean exactly? It means that He keeps or preserves our salvation for us. Whether or not we "stay saved" is not up to us, it's up to Him--and He promises to keep us saved!

John 10:28-30 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

What an awesome promise from our Lord! Now we can "relax" and not worry about our "works" as we don't need to earn our salvation before we're saved or after we're saved! The Lord will take care of that part for us!

You may be wondering why I'm posting this in a thread about trials, but it's because as I said, we've talked a lot about how God tests us, and disciplines us when we don't obey Him. I want to assure us all that regardless of how we do on these tests, we cannot lose our salvation. When we took tests in school, we either passed or failed; if we failed enough, we repeated the grade, but ultimately we were educated whether we liked it or not. (at least we were if we went to a good school with good teachers) God is perfect so we know He isn't going to let us down. If we fail one of His tests, He will simply continue to educate us and test us until we pass. That's all. It's not going to affect our salvation. How we do on these tests does however affect our lives here since obviously if we fail we'll have to "repeat the class" and the test; and it does affect our future eternal lives in the matter of rewards and what we'll be doing throughout eternity, but not where we'll spend eternity as that has already been decided.

Let's look a little further into this new covenant love relationship we're in with God once we're saved. This will give us more information that we need to pass these tests or to determine why we're being disciplined.

Jude 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

This is where it gets a bit confusing. The world teaches us that love is a feeling, but God's Word teaches us that love is a decision and an action. Real love requires work, commitment, and sacrifice on both parties. It's not just some mushy, warm fuzzy feeling that comes over us at times. Since we're now in a love relationship with God, and we know that God is perfect, we don't have to worry about Him not doing His part. He always will. We however need help in this area, as we do in all other areas. Thankfully, He is more then willing to give us that help! So, how do we "keep ourselves in God's love"? The best place to look for that answer is of course the bible again!

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Ok, now let's take those verses and apply them to Jude 1:21--keeping ourselves in God's love.

1. patient-- are we patient with God? Or do we get agitated and frustrated when He doesn't answer our prayers the way we want Him to, or when He seems distant and doesn't respond the way we think He should? Are we patient with how God guides us, trains us, and changes us, or do we get frustrated because we don't think He's changing us fast enough, or helping us enough, or working through us in the way we think He should be or that He could be?

2. kind -- are we kind to God? Are we considerate of His feelings and desires? Do we take into account what He may want to have us do that day when we get up and start making our plans? Do we stop to wonder or even ask Him what is on His heart?

3. does not envy -- do we ever envy God for His abilities, His power, or for the material things we think he can or should give us? Or maybe envy Him because He knows everything and we don't?

4. does not boast -- do we ever boast about ourselves, our accomplishments, our family, our knowledge, our memory, our abilities etc to God?

5. not proud -- Do we ever get prideful about our relationship with God? Do we forget that we love Him because He first loved us? Do we get prideful about our talents even though God gave them to us? Do we ever get prideful about our jobs or cars or other things, even though it was the Lord who gave them to us? Do we become self righteous or prideful because "we know how the book ends" and what's happening in the world now and why, and others don't? Even though the only reason we know these things and understand them is because God gave us that understanding and knowledge?

6. not rude --Do we ever forget to be thankful for what the Lord has done for us? Do we get in a hurry and demand that He pick up His pace instead of matching His pace? Rude also means to be ignorant, untrained and resentful. Do we study God's Word regularly so that we won't be ignorant of His Will? Do we get resentful of feeling that we "have to" study God's Word?

7. not self-seeking --(does not seek its own way) do we want things done our way in our time and at our convenience, or do we instead seek the Lord's way? Do we seek to please Him each day or are we instead seeking to please ourselves, make our lives easier or better? Are we always ready with a list of wants and supposed needs for Him, or are we instead searching His Word to see what His wants are?

8. not easily angered-- do we get angry at God when bad things happen to us or our loved ones? Or do we give Him the benefit of the doubt, knowing that He loves us?

9. keeps no record of wrongs -- Do we have a secret list of all the bad things that have happened to us or our loved ones because we think that God has let us down those times? (I'm not talking about an actual written list, I meant just in our minds...although I suppose you could have a written one too)

10. does not delight in evil --- Do we take delight or enjoy something that is sinful? (perhaps gossip, or adultery, or lust, looking at porn, etc?) Do we take delight in it when someone we consider "bad" or an enemy, or a criminal etc is punished or has some kind of crisis in their lives? (see Proverbs 24:17 )

11. but rejoices with the truth.-- Do we delight in doing or saying things to please the Lord? Do we delight in it when we hear others praising Him about something? Do we delight in Him?

12. protects --how can we "protect" God? He obviously doesn't need us to lol, but we can protect His Name and character. Do we show our dislike of it when someone uses His Name in vain? Do we tell others that are maligning Him that they're wrong and why? Do we allow others to mock our faith, or our Lord? Do we put up with people speaking lies about what God says, instead of rebuking them as He tells us to? Do we defend our faith?

13. trusts -- Do we really trust the Lord? even when things aren't going well for us? even when He seems distant? even in a tragedy? even when a prayer request isn't being answered the way we want? When we're in the middle of a trial that seems to have gone on forever without getting better, do we still trust that Lord is in control and that He really will work it out for our best interests? Do we trust that He cares enough to want to help us? Do we trust that He really IS helping us even if it doesn't "look like it" at the time?

14. hopes-- do we confidently expect and desire to be close to the Lord? Do we really truly want to be with Him--physically? Do we really care about "our blessed hope"- (Titus 2:13-14) the culmination of our salvation when we will get our new bodies and be with Him forever?

15. perseveres --do we give up on God when the going gets tough? do we remain constant even in the face of obstacles or discouragement? Do we stand firm in our faith, in our trust and in our beliefs even when what we see seems to indicate that we're wrong? Do we live by faith instead of by sight?

Overwhelmed a little? I know I was! However, if we can integrate these things into our relationship with the Lord, just think of how much closer and more intimate our relationship with Him will be!

Challenge:
There are 15 attributes of love listed in that verse so what might help us would be to choose one of them each day and try to apply that one thing to our relationship with God that day. I think it would be even more beneficial and interesting to share with each other what we got out of it every day while we're doing this? Anyone want to join me in this?

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