“Beware of any Christian who doesn’t walk with a limp.” – A.W. Tozer
I love that quote, and it has helped me many times to discern between true people of faith and posers.
Any true, genuine Christian has a story to tell about his or her life before Christ, which generally involves walking down the wrong path, but after God intervenes, he or she alters direction or changes circumstances. Today, he or she is moving in a completely different direction.
Not only do these authentic Christians have a personal story to tell, they love to share it because they are grateful for how God worked in their lives.
People love hearing those stories, too, because the messages offer hope. They think to themselves, if he conquered that problem, maybe I can as well. Or, if she felt that way about herself, maybe I need to know more about why she doesn’t think that way anymore.
Walk into any church this Sunday and approach people to ask how they are doing and, 99 percent of the time, the answer is almost always “fine.”
Dive deeper and ask about their family, job, business, marriage, finances, kids or health and the answer usually remains “fine” or they joke about or downplay the situation.
If you press further and ask if they’re struggling with any burdens that week, many times the person is likely to shake his or her head and answer, “Not really. Everything is fine.”
But is it really? I doubt it.
Everybody I talk to, if I listen closely enough, is not “fine.” They are scared, doubtful, worried, afflicted in some way, addicted in another, confused, tired or angry about something. They bottle up all that emotion until it can no longer be contained and it erupts.
As Christians, we need to be transparent about what we are struggling with. If we are honest with ourselves, God is nudging us to repent of something every day. We’ll grow faster if we involve others in our struggles.
A.W. Towzer also noted, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
I like how blogger Bob Clayton (http://bob-clanton.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-new-day-new-walk-and-new-name.html) described it. “This may sound strange to you, but it is exactly what He did with Jacob. There is a breaking that God must do in us before He can use us mightily. We are like the young stallion running across the field. Powerful, but useless UNTIL broken. God teaches us to bring our strength under His control.”
That means we can’t walk around pretending that we’re “fine.”
That means we can’t walk around thinking we’re supermen or superwomen who have their lives under control at all times. We are imperfect people in need of grace so that we can extend grace to other imperfect people.
In James 1:2-4, apostle Paul explains, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Trials are an important part of life. We can choose to remain mired in the trials we face by pretending that everything is “fine,” or we can work to overcome the trial with help so that our perseverance can be source of inspiration to enduring the same or similar circumstances.
A perfect Christian who never admits a challenge or never requests help and who hides behind the facade of “fine” is of no help to anyone. Nobody can relate to perfection.
Paul understood this well. In 2 Corinthians 11:28, he proclaims, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
Paul did not walk around telling everyone he was “fine.”
“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
“Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I suspect Paul loved to hear the stories of others struggling through their problems because he could see the hand of God at work in their lives. And as he boasted of his own weaknesses, others could relate to his trials and offer words of encouragement and empathy.
What is God prompting you to repent of or overcome this week?
