I misunderstood something recently that completely ripped my heart open. Because I deeply respect and love this friend, I always pay attention to their ideas and insights, and so my misunderstanding led to confusion and deep heartache. I literally wept in my confusion and disillusionment.
The further I got away from the conversation, the less I accurately remembered what was said and my imagination spun the misunderstanding further. In the dark place where I finally landed, I questioned decades of excellent teaching and truths I had shaped my life around.
I tossed these thoughts around: What if God isn’t who I have always believed Him to be? What if He didn’t create the heavens and the earth, and all the beauty we see is just by an accidental big bang? What if Jesus wasn’t present at creation and He was only a good man who didn’t rise from the dead and pay for my sins? And if that is true, what happens when we die? Is this all there is? Is my life only about carpools and casseroles and laundry? Is the best life has to offer just the small interludes of weddings and vacations and athletic victories? Are the answers to my prayers just coincidences? And… if following Jesus doesn’t really matter, my life is absurd and I am probably clinically insane. What if the prompting and warnings and encouragement that shape my thinking and actions aren’t from the Holy Spirit? What if they are just voices in my head? And how much time have I wasted on prayer and study and how much money have I thrown away by tithing? My life would be utterly ridiculous. I would truly be the most pitiable creature.
I asked my teenage daughters how they would feel if they learned that God wasn’t real and didn’t create everything, and how they would feel if they leaned that Jesus wasn’t God and that he never lived to save them. One daughter said that she would be terrified and the other one teared up and said, “My heart would be broken forever.”
If faithful Christians have gotten it all wrong over the centuries then we should all be terrified and incredibly heartbroken.
If Our God is not the awesome God that I know Him to be and if Jesus is not His beloved son who died for sinners and if His spirit is not active and living today, then we have no hope. It HAS to be true. If it isn’t, then none of us have a future or any hope.
Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life and clinging to that absolute truth is radically transforming. He was present at creation. He is God and He came to earth as a man in order to die for you and for me, because we are sinners in desperate need of saving. He loves us so much that He died and paid for our sin so that life could be more than carpools and casseroles. He rose from the dead so that we could too. We were dead and hopeless in our sin, but because Jesus rose from the dead and is still alive today, we can have life everlasting. When we follow Him and obey Him, His spirit invades our lives and radically changes each one of His children. This is the truth. It has to be true— it is true.
In our lives, there are all kinds of things that can get us off track. We stumble because of misunderstandings, sin, stubbornness, pride, insecurities and laziness; all of these can tempt us to doubt and lose sight of the truth, but Oh, dear friends Be vigilant to cling to the truth. God IS our firm foundation. He loves us and there is no confusion in Him. He fills us with understanding when we open His word. His spirit radically changes us. His son is our hope and our only way to salvation. Trust in His truth. Be transformed by His Spirit. He has made you a new creation. Entrust your lives to Him. He loves you and His love never fails.
(Jesus) “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV)
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 (NKJV)
“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us[a] in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” 1 Peter 4:1-2 (NKJV)
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19 (NKJV)