1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
What is the point of all of this? Why should I keep doing this anymore? I don't get anything out of it, so why should I take part? There's nothing for me in it. If I'm just gonna keep messing up then why continue since it just makes me feel bad? Why shouldn't I just give in and live the way I want? Why shouldn't I just end it now?
At some point we hear these words from someone who is having troubles and doubts with God. In fact there are probably times where we say them ourselves. I have found myself uttering every one of them at some point. The reason is that we live in a broken world that is constantly attacking us. On top of that, we are part of that broken world. We have sinful natures in our flesh that cause us to sin. And as we read the Bible we find that we sin in more and more different ways. We do recognize that God, in His unfailing Love, sent Lord Jesus Christ to die for our sins and pay for them. But because of that Love we can feel discouraged instead because we see two things in our sin: 1 We are hurting the God and Father that Loves us by sinning so much, and 2 We drift from God more and more as we commit the sins again and again. These are always going to be true in sin, but the discouraging part comes in when we only focus on those two things. When we decide that we have done something too wrong and need to feel guilty and suffer because of what we've done, even if it means hurting ourselves emotionally, verbally, or physically. We start seeing God's Love and Forgiveness as something too beautiful and good for us to take. We treat it with contempt and only accept it when we think we've suffered enough. But clearly, that's not what it's about. If it was, God would pour out His Wrath on us and we would truly feel guilty. But He doesn't do that. God forgives us through His Son and wants us to Love Him back. God wants us to rest in Him, no wallow in self-loathing.
Because we think making ourselves feel guilty and suffer is the right thing to do as a Christian, we start losing desire and Joy in being a Christian. We get so discouraged that we think God sees us the same way we see ourselves, an evil creature that cannot be forgiven. And so we ask, "What is the point?" I'm thankful that God didn't let me leave it at that. He wrestled with me to get me to see. It's been a long process to learn this, and yet it's the easiest thing to see in the Bible. The reason we all call ourselves Christian and believe in this in the first place, Lord Jesus Christ died for us and forgave us. As the passage says, we will be with the Lord forever. The reason for being discouraged is that we lose sight of this truth and believe what we find by our own faulty human logic. We think God sees us with human as as we see our reflection in the mirror. But God doesn't see us that way. He Loves us and He proved it. The problem we face, is letting Him. I haven't been letting Him because I think I make the choice of who I am.
God is the Judge. And through Faith, He has pardoned us of our sins. He made the choice to do so. It doesn't make it right to sin just because He forgives us, but it's also not about condemning ourselves in guilt. Paul felt freed of his sins and even said that he wouldn't let other men judge him nor would he judge himself because he knew it was only God's place to do so, and He does so with Mercy and Love. So yes we should feel sorry that we sin, but we should not condemn ourselves. God has already decided our sentence, and it's being forgiven and living forever in Him. That is our encouragement, that we are freed of our burden. We are able to repent of our sin and then immediately turn to God and praise Him for forgiving us the next minute. God wants us to do this too. Because if we turn to God in praise, it is then that we see Him with Thankfulness and Joy and desire to live for Him more. If we dwell on our sins, then we see only our sins and it will be inevitable that we will sin again. But if we accept the forgiveness and praise God in thanks, then we see God only and are better able to live for Him.
The encouragement of God is that we are saved forever. It can be easy to forget this for some people. It is for me. God showed me this and Him alone and that is even greater Joy for me. But I can't help but feel that if someone had asked me about it, or if I had been willing to ask for help it could have been solved sooner. But it is my Joy and encouragement now. But now I can't help but think about the others who live this way too. Some may not want to bring it up either. They are not some people who believe the same thing we do, they are our brothers and sisters in God our Father who formed us all and has watched us grow. God wants us to encourage each other with these words, as Paul said above. So be vigilant and look for those who need encouragement, because sometimes people don't listen to God's last effort to encourage them back, and those people end up leaving Christianity. Accept His forgiveness and tell others about it at all times, because God might take the opportunity to use you right there for the other person.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
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