There is no doubt you love God with all your heart. But your breaking point is where you suffer loss, pain, persecution, or some form of severe trauma where you’re ready to forsake God. Oh, but you would never reject God. You wouldn’t even think of it. But you never know until you reach the breaking point.
Throughout history, prisoners of war suffered some of the most severe torture done to humans. Many held on to uphold the honor of their nation, but there were those who could stand it no longer. Some just gave up hope and died in captivity and torture. These are realities that we would wish on no one, not even our enemies.
At one time, God was “boasting” to Satan about Job saying that “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8). But Satan responded that Job might turn away when taken to the breaking point (Job 1:11).
What might be the breaking point in your life? Would it be the loss of your income, loss of important friends, loss of health, inability to get the education or job you wanted? Or will never ending pain and suffering till death bring you to the breaking point?
You never know where your breaking point is. So examine each of the above areas with your heart and make a complete submission to God in each of the important areas. Then, cry out to God for the grace that kept Job faithful throughout all his sufferings.
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“But that’s not what I meant.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“You’ve changed my words around completely.”
These are common responses from people as they speak to someone who is emotionally stirred.
Words may be spoken clearly, but the decoding is muddled with emotions. The speaker’s intentions are misunderstood, and the focus of the message skewed. The bottom line is, be careful when you speak to someone whose emotions are stirred.
The better option is to just listen. Allow the person to speak what’s in their heart. Don’t give too much value to the words you hear. Much of it is simply “venting” their emotions. Just listen.
A few simple questions are good. But not too many. Make them simple questions. Most of all, allow their emotions to settle. Let them listen to their own words. This way, they’ll better understand what’s within them.
The emotions and the ears are connected in quite a unique and challenging way. Work with it.
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It was my final year of college. An important decision had to be made (a resignation). I thought through various options that were before me. I considered the implications that each option presented. I mulled over these things for several weeks as I struggled with making the decision.
Then I remembered that I should talk it over with my pastor and mentor. We sat in a restaurant with coffee mugs in hand as we had done many times. He asked me to share what’s on my mind.
After bringing out all my thoughts regarding the issue and the various options before me, he surprised me with a piercing statement. “Alexi, it seems you’ve already made up your mind.”
Wow! I didn’t realize it, but the decision was already finalized within me. Maybe I was just “bouncing” off a decision that I’d already made.
Now, I see this happening in others. And I hear myself repeating the same words I heard several decades ago. “It seems you’ve already made up your mind.”
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You are correct. You’re knowledgeable. There is no doubt about it. No one can deny it. But please, just keep it to yourself.
Add some compassion to your approach. Without compassion, you’ll just run over everyone with your greatness. Without compassion, knowledge is dangerous.
Have the patience to listen first. Let me talk. This way, you’ll hear my heart. Then, share wisdom and knowledge based on my interests and needs. Otherwise, you become irrelevant. And sorry to say, irrelevant knowledge is annoying.
Without compassion and a listening ear, just take your great knowledge and . . . keep it to yourself.
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Delight can act as a filter. Throughout the day, our perceptions can be altered to fit our perspective of delight. Negatives are seen from a different view.
When we delight in the Law of the Lord, we delight in His ways. His perspectives become out delight. No longer are we looking for what pleases us. We look for His passion. His desires. His ways.
The other option is a perspective of defeat. Situations and people have a greater impact on us rather than God. What others think ends up with greater value than what God thinks.
But when we delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night, our perspective changes. It changes from the negatives of this life to the delight of God’s ways!
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Each day, I sense that resistance within me to go my own way or to give up. My way might be more satisfying for my ego (I think). And to give up might be the easiest thing to do.
But those two options are not really options. Because God’s calling within won’t let me go. It’s trenched too deep within me that it is such a part of me. If I go my way, I would be constantly fighting with my own heart.
So the best option and the only option is to submit to God’s plan. Every day is a new beginning as I resubmit.
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Now that’s an unthinkable idea. That was the exact purpose for which Jesus came. Why would he choose to depart from his purpose? Maybe that question itself is invalid.
When Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed a very disturbing prayer: “Father, may this cup pass from me (Matthew 26:36-44). He repeated this prayer three times but each time, he differed to the father’s will.
I am struck with two thoughts regarding this prayer. First, could Jesus have had another will apart from his Father’s will? That would be contradictory to the divine Trinity. But since humanity and divinity were merged in Jesus, this apparent contradiction would be possible.
Second, if Jesus were to choose not to die on the cross, all of humanity would have been eternally lost. We all would have been eternally lost. We all would have been eternally doomed without the option of receiving forgiveness of sin and and an eternity in heaven.
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Obedience is difficult when you are used to having your own way. Your way becomes so valuable that there is no other possibility but your own way. Those who value their own way to such an extreme level will struggle to obey.
But when you suffer, your values become altered. Pain and agony will change your perspectives. The perspectives that you held so strongly will surely be questioned as you go through suffering.
Thus suffering can make people more obedient and flexible. Their perspectives will be much broader. Their values will have more depth.
The Bible says Jesus learned obedience through suffering (Heb 5:8). It’s not clear why Jesus would need to learn obedience. It is difficult for human minds to comprehend the convergence of divinity and humanity in Jesus.
But suffering alone does not teach obedience. Pain causes one to be more flexible. Agony gives depth to an individual. Such a person has values that are altered, never to be the same again.
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It sure seems like a setup. A definite setup for failure. But if the option for failure didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be any victory either.
God wants to love people and be loved by them in a real and genuine way. People must have the freedom to reject God in order for them to love and accept him. if they did not have the freedom to reject God then their love would not be genuine.
Without the freedom to make any choice they desire, they would not be human. They would be robots performing their duties according to commands and inputs from another. As humans, God wanted us to have the free will to choose or to reject his commands.
That tree in the middle of the garden had to be there for Adam and Eve to be human. It gave them the option to disobey and reject God. Only then could they obey, accept, and love God genuinely from their hearts.
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