It's a Promise

"But you haven't walked in my shoes!"

Ever have someone say that to you when you encouraged them to have faith—to trust in God?

The truth is, it doesn't matter if I'ved walked in your shoes or not.

God's faithfulness is not limited by how difficult or unique you feel that your circumstances are.

As I stared at this photo of the empty tomb with three crosses in the background, I was reminded of God's faithfulness. 

He always keeps His promises.

Always.

Such as? you may ask.

How about, "I will never leave you or forsake you."  (Hebrews 13:5).

Where people get into trouble with God's promises is that we assume (or worse, we demand) that God always answer our prayers immediately, exactly when we ask Him to, and in the exact way we expect.

Sorry. 

It doesn't work that way.

God always answers our prayers.

Always.

But—more times than not, the answer is "no."

It's because we don't know how we should ask.  In our limited understanding, not being all-knowing like God is, we ask Him for things that He knows will not be good for us.

Or, by saying "no" to our self-serving prayers, He is allowing us to go through a fiery trial that is actually us reaping the consequences of our own foolish choices and actions.  He didn't make us commit that crime. We freely chose to do it.  

No one "falls" into sin.  We choose that path and then we walk into it knowingly.  

We all have free will.

Far too often, we ask God to wave a magic wand and expect Him to make our consequences just disappear, when we knew all along that what we chose to do was wrong.

Fortunately, God will not enable us to stay in our sinful condition.

God accepts us just the way we are—but, He loves us too much to leave us that way.

I'm so thankful for that. 

Here's a little promise from Hebrews 12:5-11 that demonstrates how much the Father loves us:

 “ My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,

    Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

    For whom the LORD loves He chastens,

    And scourges every son whom He receives.”

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?  For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

Instead of complaining, try thanking God that He will never enable you to stay in your sin.

As we choose to submit to the painful discipline the Father administers to us in love, we will eventually experience the peaceable fruit of righteousness, but only as we submit ourselves to be trained (and changed) by His discipline.

Resist His discipline and try to get around it, and you're in for a long season of pain.

You can't outrun the consequences of your own actions. 

Paul makes this very clear:

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." (Galatians 6:7)

Just like the Second Law of Thermal Dynamics is in the physical (everything is breaking down), reaping what you sow is an immutable spiritual law.

You can't escape it.

Sure, if you're a follower of Christ, God will forgive you for the stupidity that you sowed—if you confess it. 

But rarely, if ever, will He make your consequences in the here-and-now just 'go away.'

In my own personal experience, He never makes my consequences instantly just go away.  He may shorten the duration if I have humbled myself and submitted to His discipline, and actually learned the lesson He is teaching me.  But He never altogether removes reaping from sowing. God would not be true to His own word if He did. Besides, we would never learn anything if we didn't reap what we sow.  

The Father disciplines those whom He loves.

No discipline means no love.  (Parents, did you catch that?)

If you're a son (or daughter) of the Most High, then hunger and thirst for the discipline the Father administers—knowing that afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

But know this, if you get arrogant and act like the spoiled, entitlement generation brats do today, your season of discipline from your Father will be extra long and painful.

God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Tough words, tough love. 

But necessary.

And, funny thing about consequences... you may think you have dodged them, at least for now.  But some day, in ways that you don't have a clue about now, the consequences of what you have sown will come back around and bite you. 

And, if that's not enough, they will negatively affect others who are near and dear to you—such as—your children.

To see how far-reaching the consequences are of our sin, just study the life of King David, his wife Bathsheba, and their children.  Even though God forgave them, the "sword never departed from their house."  (See 2 Samuel 12:10)

The pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow is the peaceable fruit of righteousness that we will experience after we have submitted to God our Father, and allowed ourselves to be trained, and learn the lesson He is teaching us.

Just yield... and thank Him for loving you that much to discipline you.

God is our faithful Father and He always keeps His promises to His children.

Always.

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.