Month: August 2015

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

It is vitally important for struggling Christians to know that if they feel anger towards God in the midst of great pain God will not destroy them for it. But it is equally important for them to finally go beyond that anger and come to the point of realizing that He has the right to allow, or even cause, their pain for His own good purposes. Eventual repentance from anger against our Creator is necessary and part of that repentance must be grounded in this simple but profound fact: He is God, we are not.

This was the lot of Job. From a purely human perspective no one in the Bible had more right to be angry at God than he. By God’s own reckoning Job was a righteous man, yet God allowed Satan to destroy everything he held dear and then go on to deeply afflict him physically. Job had no idea why this was happening to him and after his initial “though He slays me yet will I trust Him” period at the beginning of the book he begins to become angry, and this is not lost on his “comforters.” In verse 15:13, for example, Eliphaz says to Job, “Why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?” In verse 18:4 Bildad calls Job “You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger.” By this point in the narrative, both by their words and his own, we can have no doubt that Job is angry and his anger has a Target. In fact Job is not only angry towards God. He goes so far as to accuse Him of wrongdoing.

In all this the Lord never sends down a lightening bolt to smite him from the Earth. Why? Perhaps it is because God still loves Job despite what He has allowed Satan to do to him as well as how Job has reacted to it. Since God is unchanging we can be confident that we latter-day Job’s do not forfeit His love when we are upset with Him either.

But it is important to remember that Job does not stay angry with God indefinitely. Yahweh’s response to Job’s anger and accusation is to finally reveal Himself in all His holiness and sovereign power. This encounter completely overwhelms Job and absolutely convinces him that God is God and he is not. He repents in dust and ashes and God, Who has both proven His point to Job as well as won the Devil’s cosmic wager, restores Job completely.

Job is not the only biblical hero who has times of antagonism with his Lord, David and Jeremiah both come to mind. Despite what some timid or legalistic believers may tell you anger with God is not the unforgivable sin. In fact it seems reasonable to assume that God would rather deal with honest anger from His children than hypocritical piety towards Him when anger is what truly dwells in that child’s heart.

Still, anger long held against God is destructive to our relationship with Him and cannot be countenanced forever. Unchecked it leads to bitterness and alienation from the Lover of our souls. It is vital that we learn the same lesson that Job did, and one more thing. We must come to both know and accept that we have no final justification in accusing God of treating us wrongly because He is intrinsically incapable of treating anyone wrongly. By His very nature God is God and therefore rightly sovereign over our lives and circumstances, but beyond that God is also good and he takes no pleasure in our afflictions. In fact such afflictions always have a redemptive purpose in the lives of his people. It is only through learning these definitive truths that we can come to our spiritual senses and turn from anger that has no legitimate grounds, no matter how much we feel it does.

When we do we will know the abundant blessings that are the fruit of reconciliation to the One Who took the ultimate initiative to be reconciled to us…by bleeding and dying on a cross 2000 years ago.

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

I have recently recognized a disturbing tendency I have to sometimes use a type of wrong personal reaction to circumstantial adversity to elicit excessive sympathy from those from whom I want it. This most often tends to manifest itself in the way I react to physical pain or emotional tension. There was a time in my life, not so very long ago, when I would bear both of these things with more of the “stiff upper lip” for which the English have famously, and probably stereotypically, been noted (disclaimer: I am not English.) My tendency at that time was to not take advantage of my pain or tension to subtly, or not so subtly, manipulate people into treating me as I wanted to be treated. For some reason this has, at times, no longer been the case in my life in recent years.

I believe that every human being desires to be comforted during times of trial and tribulation and I do not think that the God of the cross considers this to be a sinful desire. Actually it is often this very desire which, when it becomes acute enough, plays a major role in drawing people towards that cross and salvation. Once we do become children of God we learn that He is the source of real comfort, that He is in fact “the God of all comfort.” That God loves to comfort his own in their distress is a thoroughly biblical presumption.

It is also no doubt true that His comfort often comes through people, and should we expect it to be otherwise when we are called to be the hands and the feet of Christ on earth? God does sometimes comfort us with a direct touch from Heaven, but it seems that far more often this touch comes from our fellow believers (and sometimes even from non-believers who are people of good will through the common grace that the creator gives to all of us, whether we know Him or not.) There is nothing wrong with the idea of finding comfort in those who care for us.

The problem comes when our desire for comfort in distress becomes excessive and manipulative. If, for instance, I use a physical ache or a bad mood to try to force my wife to feel sorry for me, drop everything she is engaged in, and treat me more like a doting mother than my life-partner and friend then I might be going over the line. It is not that we do not legitimately need this at times from a spouse or friend, but if it is frequent and becomes some kind of a substitute for learning to bear with daily adversity then we are shirking one of the responsibilities of our sanctification as believers.

The bottom line is that God, as any good father would, expects us to sometimes carry our share of worldly distress on our own. He wants us to count on the character he has progressively given us to carry on without manipulative complaint until we come though whatever the distress is to the other side. This is, in a sense, simply a part of what the world calls “growing up.” It is one thing for a five year old to run to his mother when he has cut himself or been bullied by someone. It is quite another for a forty year old man to run to his wife for the same reason and in the same spirit.

So I apparently have more growing up to do than I thought necessary at this point in my life. I do not mind admitting that it is a bit disturbing to come to this realization, but as with all circumstances in our pilgrimage through this world the truth can set us (and me) free.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

A sense of superiority over others is a lie of the soul. It is part of fallen human nature to think ourselves better than many if not most of our fellows. We see the failings of the people we share our lives with and almost automatically judge them as wanting while either consciously or unconsciously forgetting our own faults. We walk in pride in this life almost as easily as we breathe.

Salvation opens our eyes to this dark part of our character but salvation does not banish it. What we are often left with initially is a terrible realization of just how bad we really are in regards to thinking ourselves better than those around us. Having one’s spiritual eyes opened can be a frightening thing for just this reason. What once seemed acceptable, or not even thought about, suddenly is recognized as sin and there appears to be no “silver bullet” that will kill that sin off within us. This is because there isn’t one. Only the work of the Holy Spirit can alter this basic aspect of who we are in the flesh; and His work is the work of a lifetime. Sanctification is an ongoing process in which we crucify our personal sin with His help. Our tendency to judge others is often one of the first things we are convicted of in this sanctification because pride is at the base of all other transgressions.

Some will object at this point and raise the issue of individuals with “poor self-esteem.” Whatever poor self-esteem may be one thing it is not is a guarantee that a person so afflicted will be truly humble. Most of us have known (or been) someone who has struggled with personal worth while simultaneously thinking themselves better than others. Some of the most insecure personalities throughout human history have also been the most prejudiced. Since the fall of Adam no one has lived a life utterly free from a superiority complex with the exception of Jesus Christ, ironically the one man who had a legitimate right to such a sense of superiority. No, this complex is present in all men and women. It is simply a matter of degree.

The Bible tells us to think of others as better than ourselves. To do so consistently is the ultimate goal for this aspect of a believer’s maturation. How do we accomplish it on a practical level? Perhaps the first step is to acknowledge our inability to accomplish anything in the power of our flesh. First we must specifically petition the Spirit to enable our transformation in this area. Asking His help is, in fact, basic to our victory over any kind of sin but it seems especially true in regards to the sin of pride. Next we have to remain consciously aware of our bent in this direction once our eyes have been initially opened to its presence. Anytime we experience a sense of moral superiority over someone else we must be ready to resist it. In addition to internally renouncing our conceit we have to remind ourselves why we are doing the renouncing, because in the eyes of a holy God we are as flawed in our own way as they are in there’s. Even Christians are never far from gross sin except by the grace of God. Further Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that our thought life can be sinful even when our external actions are not. Realizing these two truths can go a long way towards humbling us in regards to the faults of others.

Another action that can help is to look at the best qualities of each human being we encounter instead of the worst. This might not be easy at the beginning, especially if we have a tendency to see the glass as half empty rather than half full. A habitually negative frame of mind can be difficult to overcome, whether it is negative towards ourselves or others. Again, the answer is to rely on the empowerment of the Spirit over time. When we learn to seek out the best in others we will begin to see them as precious persons, created in the image of God, who have great potential for good. We might also start to see where they have admirable traits that we do not, as yet, possess. It is good for our growth in humility to gain this perspective. It gives us something else to shoot for in our own Christian life.

By facing the truth about ourselves, and practicing these methods with the potent help of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our arrogance and come to love and esteem those persons who we once disdained. In doing so we will please our Father; and continue to be transformed into the image of His beloved Son. The power of this lie of the soul will be broken in our lives and we will be free to leave the judging of people to God alone.