And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. | Colossians 1.9-12
Everything in our life is set up to give us exactly what we want the moment we want it. We no longer have to structure our schedule around TV shows; we simply watch them when we want. We no longer have to wait until we can afford things; we put them on credit. In terms of authority: nothing holds greater weight than ‘my rights.’ Our culture is built on the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which means personal desire trumps ALL.
The great offense of Christianity is that Jesus calls us to give up our way. The foundation of our faith is the surrender of life, liberty and happiness. This would be a complete travesty if God did not offer us something much more powerful on the other end. His promise is to replace life as we know it with life as it was intended to be; freedom to do what we want with a freedom to be worshippers; happiness with true fulfillment. God replaces a self-help life with the promise of His sovereign plan.
The problem for each person is that God doesn’t provide us with what we want when we want it. Instead, he gives us what we need; sometimes what we need is the opposite of what we want. This is the moment where faith in necessary. In order to engage in what is hard over what is easy, we have to believe in the long term promise of the difficult. We have to trust that God’s way really will be better.
God does not leave us alone to conjure up the faith. He joins us in the struggle; He is with us in the fight. God gives us relationship with Him so that we can have the strength to keep going, the eyes to see long term, and assurance after assurance that His plan is better than ours. When we take on Christ, we are not just accepting Him into our life, we are giving Him permission to change us, to make us who we are supposed to be. This process of maturity can be tough, but it is GOOD. The more we give up, the more we will get from God. The more we are willing to commit to Him, the more He will grow us. The more we trust Him, the more proof we will receive.