No Whiners

Following God has a cost and a huge reward. Jesus said in Matt 19:29, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my names sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” The point is following him may mean you will lose all you have but you will gain so much more. In particular you will be following in his footsteps. In one of our forgotten God discussions, a person admitted that asking for the Holy Spirit to come in and guide your life can be scary because drawing closer to God can require walking through tough times. Times we never would have chosen for ourselves but in retrospect, times that build our faith because we can look back in amazement of what He did for us.

God reminds Jeremiah that he knows how he feels at that moment. He says in verses 7-13, “I’ve been there. I know what it’s like when those you care about don’t listen.” In many ways, the dialog reminds me of a discussion between people in a recovery program or a parent to a child when the person speaking and the person listening really understand each other and the dilemma to be faced. I was talking to member this week and they were telling me about talking to an old friend who just went through the same experience they did 10 years before. The shared experience made them feel someone knew them.

For us as Christians, we share this same kind of bond with God through our belief in Jesus Christ and His actions as he walked among us. He understands what we are going through. There’s no need to whine about our lives. Jesus walked it once and He is present to walk with us. Phillips Brook once said, “The purpose of life is the building of character through truth and you don’t build character by being a spectator.” Wiersbe Commentary

God walks with each of us by way of the Holy Spirit. He is there to guide, to encourage and to remind us that while life can be hard, it can doesn’t have to be drudgery but trudge. The difference is in drudgery, we walk without hope. When we trudge, we walk with purpose.

Now, I’m not saying that it’s easy. There will be plenty who will give up. There will be plenty who turn back. There will be some tempted to take a short cut by doing anything to get out of walking their path. Jeremiah knows that. God also knows that. It is why later in verses 12:14-16, God offers a huge promise for all those who wonder if they are saved or not because they wandered away from the faith. And Paul reiterates this again in

Romans 11:23 which states:

And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. (NIV)

The point is this: the Lord allows the overcoming of his people for three reasons: First, so in the end, those who see the reactions of believers in bad times may be inspired to turn to the Lord and seek forgiveness themselves. Just as Jesus was a witness to the world through his suffering, we can be a witness to ours. Second, God allows our overcoming as a way to draw closer to him in this life to remind us of our reliance on him and the hope of future with him. With that in mind, there is NEVER a reason to whine, only to rejoice in what Jesus did for us when He suffered, died and rose again.