It makes me smile any time some of the younger folk share
something and I suddenly find myself telling a story that begins with, “When I
was a kid…” Yup, I’m that old guy that walked to school uphill both ways, and…
well, I think you get the point. I’m old enough to have stories that could
prove helpful to younger folk should they like to sit around the fire and
listen, so to speak.
I also find that the stories I like to tell are not just
back-in-the-good-old-days reminiscing, but lessons learned over the years and
how I would love to see people spared the mistakes I made,[1] or
things I went through simply because I did not know any better.[2]
One of the patterns I have seen over the years is the
difference between those who plod on seeking God in his word and prayer no matter
what they are going through, and those who give it a try and decide it doesn’t
work. Those who take God at his word, believing that faith comes from hearing
and hearing from the words of Christ,[3]
have stronger faith as they have kept listening to whatever the Spirit is
saying to the churches.[4]
On the other hand, those who gave the reading of God’s word
a sarky try, and didn’t get the drive-thru results they asked, seem to end up
even more self-protective and sarky than before.
As I have analyzed and prayed and pondered the things I have
witnessed, wondering why so many turn away, and so few persevere, I have
discovered that there is a common theme to both the successes and the failures.
In a sense, both revolve around the same things, or same issues, or same
problems, but the faith-side looks at these things through the promises of God’s
word and presses on, while the flesh-side looks at these things through the eyes
of “sight”, and quits because they can’t “see” anything happening.
The point that everyone faces, choosing whether to handle
these things by faith or in the flesh, is the true condition of their souls. I’m
never sure if our North American culture is different than other countries or
continents, but there is a very strong component of people living one life on
the outside, and a different life on the inside. My institutional church
experience was largely shaped by a focus on how people were acting on the
outside rather than how they were doing on the inside.
On the other hand, my story now includes lessons learned
from trying to reverse this focus. What happens to church folk when we do not
applaud their good outer role-playing, but seek to know the condition of their
souls? How do people react to us seeking God’s best for their “inner being”
rather than honoring them with the church version of an Academy Award for their
amazing acting?
Just in case anyone is wondering, pastors making church life
about the condition of people’s souls is not optional. God’s description of
pastors and elders is men who “are
keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”[5]
Caring about how people are doing in their souls is a necessary quality for
leaders who are undershepherds to the flock of our Lord Jesus Christ.[6]
My primary aim in sharing this is not to focus on the
problem of our sarky self-protection, but to share why we ought to be willing
to face the dark night of our souls, so to speak, no matter how much it feels
like David’s “valley of the shadow of
death”.[7]
I want to encourage you who are reading this to join the small band of people
bringing their souls to Jesus, or, if already doing so, to let your light so
shine before men that more people will see the good works of the faith-filled
and glorify God for his wonderful gifts of grace.[8]
One of the ways we stir up our hearts to faith is by praying
what is written in God’s own words. The Apostle Paul often told us things he
was praying for the churches, giving us ample instruction in what we also ought
to pray. In relation to the deep things of our souls he prayed, “that according to the riches of his glory
he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”[9]
Paul prayed that the churches would experience the Spirit’s
work in their “inner being”, and that
their relationship with Christ would be “in
your hearts”. That is how we pray for people when we are watching over
their souls. We are not satisfied with good religious behavior on the outside,
but must know that people are experiencing the abiding presence of Jesus Christ
in their inner selves.
The question is, when we pray this prayer, and the next
thing that happens is that it exposes the present condition of our inner being,
messed up and needy as it is, will we keep going because of what God says he
will do for our souls, or do we quit because we don’t like what we see? Does
our journey into seeking the Lord about what ails us on the inside bring us before
the cross as sinners who have been found by their Savior, or bring us before
God’s throne stomping our stubborn little feet because God keeps choosing to do
things his way instead of our own?
Yes, those who persevere in faith do so because they believe
God’s will is better than their will (as Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done”[10]),
while those who stop because they don’t like what they see do so because they believe
their own will is better than God’s.[11]
When we discover that we are having a battle with our souls
we didn’t really recognize, or haven’t wanted to admit, it helps to know that what
we need is not first and foremost some new program to help us with our
soul-issues. Ministry may come through programs offered in our churches, but it
is not the program that saves and helps us. Our need is for the hearing of God’s
word regarding his ministry to our souls. As God’s word says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ,”[12]
so we need to hear the words of Christ ministering to our souls. It doesn’t
matter whether this comes directly from reading the Scriptures, or a pastor’s
sermon sharing Scriptures we need. We could hear Scripture in a blog post, a Bible
study, or a church program sharing these things. Whatever the case, faith is
listening for what Jesus is speaking through his word.
Yes, I believe that tragic and traumatic things have
affected us, and that we have been messed up in our souls in heartbreaking
ways. Yes, I believe this includes everything we have done to our own souls
through our sin and unbelief, and what other people have done to our souls
through their abuses and cruelties against us.
The question is not whether God cares about the condition of
our souls, the things we live with inside that we don’t want others to know
about because we are sure they will reject us, but whether he has promised to
do anything about our soul-condition. If he gives us promises aimed at the
healing of our souls, then the way we pray for ourselves is not based on what
we see, not even on what we have seen our whole lives, but on what he says.
Jesus said, “Come to
me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”[13]
For some of us, such a Scripture may sound so familiar that
we have never applied it to the deep things of our souls. Jesus explicitly declared
his desire to give rest to our souls. Yes, rest. We are weary and burdened in
our souls. We labor to handle what is wrong with our souls, always aware that
we are just as heavy laden as Jesus describes. We are discouraged and
frustrated and hopeless and depressed because we have failed to return our
souls to joy, and have no hope that anyone else could do so.
But then we have Jesus speaking to us so clearly and
precisely, telling us that he promises to give rest to our souls, and now we
must decide whether we will come by faith, or refuse in our flesh. Will we
relate to Jesus with the worship of trusting his words, or reject his offer
because we refuse to do his will unless he packages it in sight-based details we
can manage ourselves?
It is still true that God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”[14] If
we are going to take God at his word, and agree with him that he does heal the
brokenhearted, and he does bind up our wounds, will we trust him with HOWEVER
we are brokenhearted and wounded because he promises to heal and bind up
whatever is wounded? In other words, are we asking God to heal us without
showing us that we are brokenhearted, or are we coming to him with everything to
do with our brokenhearted condition (our sins included), because we want him
uncovering every festering wound until everything within us is healed?
I simply add my testimony to the mix, and hope I can
encourage someone out there to press on in something that has suddenly appeared
rather hopeless, get into God’s word and listen to his Spirit is speaking to
your inner being, and then join his work by faith until you can also testify
that God truly does heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
No, I do not believe that everyone needs to make their own mistakes. God has breathed-out
many written examples of people’s mistakes with the intention of us learning
from their mistakes and doing things according to his good, acceptable, and
perfect will (Romans 12:1-2).
[2]
Apollos (Acts 18:24-28) is an example of a man who did not know the gospel any
better than what he had heard through John the Baptist, but he was willing to
learn from Aquila and Priscilla based on their fuller understanding of the
gospel. So, Aquila and Priscilla “took
him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (vs 26). The
result was that, when Apollos continued his ministry, “he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he
powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the
Christ was Jesus” (vss 27-28).
[3]
Romans 10:17
[4]
In each of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3, Jesus concluded
with, “He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13,
22).
[5]
Hebrews 13:17
[6]
See I Peter 5:1-4
[7]
Psalm 23:4; context: Psalm 23:1-6.
[8]
Matthew 5:16
[9]
Ephesians 3:16-17; context: Ephesians 3:14-21.
[10]
Luke 22:42; context: Luke 22:1-71 is the whole chapter, with Luke 22:39-46 the
focus on how Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
[11]
We should note that, not only do we see Jesus’ example of preferring his Father’s
will even while the judgment of God against our sins was staring him in the
face, but that he began his ministry with the forty day wilderness experience
in which the devil presented a variety of temptations aimed at Jesus choosing
some immediate benefit to himself rather than the long-term bigger picture of
the will of his Father, and he kept choosing his Father’s will above his own (Matthew
4:1-11).
[12]
Romans 10:17
[13]
Matthew 11:28-30
[14]
Psalm 147:3
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