Going Through

Many is the time I find myself thanking God for the examples He supplied throughout the Old Testament of how the flesh fails.

My flesh fails regularly; it gets impatient, selfish, self-absorbed, frustrated, and angry and a whole host of other … shhhh…sinful emotions on a daily basis.  Someone else may have found a foolproof way to fleshproof their existence, but I haven’t reached that Nirvana plateau by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaking of imagination though, I often utilize my imagination to help me get my flesh under control when it is acting up particularly badly in any given situation. 

I imagine those Israelites, trudging across the Wilderness.

That’s why I’m so thankful for the examples we’ve been given.  They help me put it all in perspective and remembering how weak my flesh is, how weak all flesh is, I also remember where the strength comes from.  It certainly isn't from me "pulling up my boot straps" or reaching deep inside myself. 

May I share some recent events as relate to historical events with you? 

Recently, my spouse and I prayed a series of prayers based on some specific needs in our lives.  Here’s what we discovered and learned and by Gods grace are overcoming through the answers God provided to each prayer.  Listen in and see if you might learn something too.

At first when our prayers were answered, we were joyful!  WOW!!  We asked, God supplied, isn’t our God good??!!?!

Then the daily grind set in, quickly, quicker than you could imagine. 

To get from A to B, where we wanted and needed to get to, we had to actually make the trip.

Just like the Israelites, all those years ago, when they asked and asked for God to deliver them from bondage to the Egyptians.

God delivered them.  He set them free!  He promised to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey!  They would be masters of their own destinations, free to choose their own life path!

The journey to that freedom had only just begun when it started.

The grumbling, the whining, and the bellyaching about how hard it was, actually making the journey.  How hungry they were, how thirsty, how tired and hey, didn’t they have it better when they were in Egypt? 

Food was scarce, sure, but at least they had something to eat!  Water was precious and doled out by the thimble-full, but hey, at least they had water!

The fleshly ailment that plagued those Israelites is the same exact fleshly ailment that began to plague my spouse and me.

We were fast losing sight of the BIG PICTURE, the deliverance from certain situations as God brought about answers to our prayers, as He began to bless us just as we had asked Him to!  

We were getting trapped by the minutiae of the “DAILY GRIND”. 

There’s a reason it is called the DAILY GRIND. 

Daily, it grinds you down. 

It grinds down your joy.

 

It grinds down your gratitude. 

It grinds down your vision of the BIG PICTURE, that you are leaving point A which wasn’t working out favorably at all, and that you are actually on your way to point B, where you WANT to be, where you need to be and where God will bless you there. 

It just grinds your vision down until your vision is fuzzy and out of focus, and you are caught in that minutiae.

We tend to have a very romantic view of those souls from the Old Testament that serve as our example.  We read about 40 years of wandering in the desert and our minds condense it to no more than the 4 seconds it takes us to read the words.

40 years.

WOW!!

I am not sure I’d have made it.  After 6 months or so, I probably would have convinced myself that I had misheard Gods instructions and I was really supposed to stop traveling, dig in and build a city for myself right there in the wilderness.

Can you honestly say you wouldn’t do the same?  That you would have the foresight and strength of mind to keep going, pitching your tent every night, cleaning it all up and packing it away and strapping it on your back and walking all day, every day, day after day for 40 years?  

That’s 14,600 days.  Even if you stayed in camp for a week at a time, that’s 2080 times you would pack that tent, trudge through hot desert, unpack that tent, sleep, pack that tent up and do it all again.

I can hear you and me now.  

Whining, crying, belly-aching and forgetting all about what WE asked God to do for us and He is so graciously and kindly doing!

When they finally reached that beautiful Land that had been promised, 10 of them had gotten ground down in the minutiae of the daily grind and reported on what they’d seen; sure, the Land was flowing with milk and honey, but it’s too late, they said,  it’s too hard, they cried, it will be too much work for us to go in and possess it, we just can’t do it!

Two of them reported that the Land was glorious and they needed only to march in and claim the prize they’d been promised!  See Numbers 13 and 14 for the full story.

How did they have such a different response?  It wasn’t that they didn’t all go through the same daily grind.  It was something else.

Their God had given specific instruction to them.  And they were sticking to it.

He has given specific instruction to us. Are you aware of that?  Each of us has a specific call, a purpose to fulfill.  Can we, will we stick to it?

Jesus told us to follow Him.  How exciting, how wonderful!  We’ve been invited to follow the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  How romantic to follow in His steps!

Oh, no, wait, we have to TAKE UP OUR CROSS, the burden involved in following Him, the cost, the weight, the DAILY GRIND we have to overcome to do what it takes to follow Jesus.

We’ve just celebrated the Resurrection of Christ.  For many, that means we focused for a minute or two on what Jesus went through to get to that Resurrection.

Every blow of every crack of the whips they used to beat Him beyond recognition. 

Every strand of hair painfully pulled ruthlessly from his chin as they tore out His beard.

Every drop of spittle spat contemptuously upon Him.

Every kick crashing wave upon wave of pain through His muscles, already stretched beyond endurance.

Every thorn point, breaking skin and violently tearing into His skull.

How did Jesus get from point A: coming to earth as a man to deliver all Mankind from the wages of sin, to point B: raising up from the dead to gloriously declare that all penalty had been paid, all the price was settled and you and I were FREE for all Eternity from our sin?

It wasn’t that He didn’t go through.  He most certainly went through for you and me.

The Scripture tells us the answer.

Hebrews 12: 1-3

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

We cannot escape the experience of the flesh.  We must go through, just as Caleb and Joshua, two of the 12 spies Israel sent into the Promised Land to bring back a report, had to go through.  The same daily grind as everyone else for those 40 years of wandering, seemingly endlessly, pointlessly for 14,600 days.

The difference was in their focus.  The difference was in what they choose to hold onto.  While everyone else kept looking at the circumstances of the world around them, and giving in to the complaints of their flesh, they kept their focus firmly fixed, steadfast, on the promises God had made to them.  They didn’t concentrate on the momentary flesh discomforts, but kept the vision of the end result bright and clear  before their eyes.

When Jesus was enduring horrific suffering in the flesh, His mind was fixed, not on what He was currently enduring, but on the BIG PICTURE.  The END RESULT that would be achieved.  The JOY of providing salvation to His creation – YOU and ME.

It’s tough, I will give you that.  It is a struggle.  In fact, it is a real FIGHT to bring the flesh into submission.  But it is a fight worth waging and a fight worth WINNING.

The prize is spectacular, beyond the ability of our finite minds to comprehend.

JOY everlasting.  Always in the delightful, loving, glorious presence of God in all His fullness.

We can also try looking at this another way.

Think back to when you were a child.  Your parents or a figure of authority you really wanted to impress  asked you to do something.  They were counting on you.  

You didn’t want to let them down.  You not only wanted to achieve the expectation to please them, but you wanted the satisfaction yourself of knowing you had done it, you had completed the task, won their approval and proved to yourself you could do it.

That was a temporary, momentary, fleeting victory which you were willing to give your all to achieve.

God has set a task and the end result is ETERNAL, NEVER ENDING, and of far greater IMPORT to the entire world and all of heaven and most especially to YOU.

If we will fix our thoughts and hearts on the end result, somehow, we will get through the minutiae and win the victory over our flesh. And receive the reward that God has promised, life everlasting, full of joy and peace.

And we will experience reward right here on earth, living a life of true purpose, being LIGHT and SALT to our own generation, and some of us will even affect generations that came before us, and the generations coming up after us.

Obedience.  Its a WIN - WIN situation for all who participate.

Don't give up, don't give in!  Just SURRENDER to the work of the Holy Spirit and follow His leading.  You will have a bumpy ride, but it will be exhilarating!