The following thoughts were spurred by a couple sources—Pastor Matt’s sermon this week on Church Devotion (and the subsequent H2H group discussion), as well as Mark Driscoll’s podcast from Mars Hill this week on The Cost of Discipleship. Driscoll commented that prior generations and other cultures probably have a better grasp on discipleship and devotion than we do in Western Christianity today. From the time of the early church, Christians understood that they were likely to suffer for their belief. Yet while we understand that logically, it doesn’t often have an impact on our daily life.
I’m reminded of Rafael, who grew up in a Muslim family in Mozambique. His father was a prominent Islamic leader in the community. When Rafael became a Christian, his father and brothers dragged him out of town, beat him, poured boiling oil on him, and left him for dead. I met Rafael at a Christian refugee center in Austria a couple years after that. Something like that would certainly deter a lot of people from even considering Christianity!
In our “consumer Christian” culture, we not only do not expect suffering, we don’t even want to be inconvenienced. With 350,000 churches in the US (mostly Protestant) we have people hopping from church to church looking for better programs, different meeting times, kinder people, or better theology. How many of these people would still consider themselves Christians if there were no legal church and no buildings to meet in? American Christians complain about the poor treatment they receive in the media. I hate to tell you, but if the media is our only concern we’ve got it easy. It’s going to get a whole lot worse, not better.
To bring this a little closer to home, I wonder how much devotion to Christ we live out each week. Not just attending church, reading the Bible, and praying, but seeking God’s will and endeavoring to live in an ongoing relationship with Him. The first three items can greatly help us in that relationship, but they can also be “done” without any relationship at all. If we don’t have that relationship, what is our motivation for performing Christian activities? Is it simply a habit, or seeking to win God’s approval, or looking like a dutiful Christian? But if we do have a relationship with God, hopefully our activities will flow out of a desire to know Him and to show our love for Him. While we can quantify time spent in Christian activities, it’s hard to get a reading on desire and devotion.
What happens when we encounter a little adversity, either internally or externally? It doesn’t even have to be because we’re Christians, but just the regular difficulties of life. As Driscoll points out, folks like to say, “That’s just the cross I have to bear” when talking about mundane issues that have no connection to the cross of suffering and persecution Jesus talked about in Luke 9:23-24. I’ve noticed in my own life a tendency to think, “If I just had more faith I wouldn’t be subject to that temptation or that challenge.” But that is a lie of the enemy, designed to keep us busy trying to fix ourselves rather than relying and resting in God’s love. We know that the health & wealth gospel is heresy, and yet we still tend to believe that a little more faith would take away all our problems. And then if the problems don’t go away, it can generate a fear that says, “My faith is inadequate. What’s wrong with me?” And the fear is multiplied by pride/shame saying, “I can’t let anyone know I’m still struggling because they’ll judge me for my lack of progress.”
Here are a few Scriptural admonitions that I know I need to work out in my own life. Maybe they’ll help some other folks as well.
- “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Don’t believe the lie that perfect faith precludes problems.
- “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). Hope and patience are possible because we know Who wins in the end. Don’t forsake prayer and Scripture, because through them you can be strengthened.
- “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray… Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders… And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:13-15). Don’t let pride keep you from being honest with your brothers and sisters in Christ who can pray, encourage, and help you in difficult times.
- “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-4). Don’t give up!
