Madre
12-01-2008, 10:39 AM
This is a bit long, but I hope it's encouraging. (For some reason, I couldn't block it in quotes.)
God has a funnel, in a manner of speaking, that allows Him to take you (a very small creature) out of the masses of humanity and place you exactly where He wants you. If you could examine it, you would find that God's funnel is made up of various problems: contrary people, events, circumstances, vexing church situations, financial pressures, failures, thoughts, dysfunctional marriages, poor health, and trying family situations, to name a few. All these problems are calculated to pressure you, the believer, farther and farther into the narrow way that leads to the very presence of God, where problems will no longer be a concern, but prayer, joy, and praise will be the course of the day.
Many make the mistake of rebelling against the problems they discover around them rather than submitting to God's purpose. Several atitudes are revealed when believers are surrounded by difficulties. Some, with great effort, begin to struggle against the funnel. They devise all sorts of methods and work to the point of exhaustion, hoping to get rid of whatever is causing so much misery. They have not learned that God does not do anything about problems if we're trying to solve them ourselves.
Since He is the only One capable of resolving the problem, the self-reliant believer is in the terrible predicament of being so confident in his own strength that he cannot allow God to provide the solution. After all, such a believer carries an invisible bag of tricks containing all the methods he has developed to deal with emergencies: control, manipulation, religion, anger, running, depression, resentment, emotional blocking, blame taking, blame giving, and the list goes on. If God allowed one of these tricks to resolve the problem, then He would be putting His stamp of approval on such pathetic tools for living, while at the same time encouraging a person's desire to be self-sufficient. It is important that God not allow the bag of tricks to help the believer overcome.
It is easy to spot those who are experiencing a failure of their bag of tricks, for they will become angry, withdrawn, and depressed and often will return to the old sins of the past in the hope that these will give some measure of relief. If they experience even the faintest shadow of the lessening of discomfort, they will once again be working full force on the problem with their satchel. In fact, these believers have a need to be cured from what is in reality a state of idolarty; an idol simply being that to which a person runs, apart from God, when in the midst of problems. These idols are varied and can include such things as eating, arguing, wiehdrawing, controlling, or hard work. Little bags of tricks reserved for resolving life's problems are in reality nothing more than idols, whose effectiveness God will do nothing to confirm.
We simply do not have the resources within ourselves to overcome our problems and live abundantly. There is one lesson that can be taken from the Pharisees, who possessed the most religious, disciplined, and educated of self-lives. Yet they rejected God Himself when they came fact to face with Him and are proof that the flesh is of no value in attempting to resolve conflict.
Some become so accustomed to problems that they actually decide this is all that life holds for them. They may complain about their distress, bemoan and lament over their problems, but in all their actions and talk they reveal that they are prepared to remain in this miserable state, for they believe that life in the funnel is all they will ever experience. Remember that the purpose of God's funnel is to bring us through and into His presence. There is no reward for staying miserable our whole lives! We must allow each circumstance to drive us into the presence of God, where we will find our relief.
~ Michael Wells, Problems, God's Presence, and Prayer
God has a funnel, in a manner of speaking, that allows Him to take you (a very small creature) out of the masses of humanity and place you exactly where He wants you. If you could examine it, you would find that God's funnel is made up of various problems: contrary people, events, circumstances, vexing church situations, financial pressures, failures, thoughts, dysfunctional marriages, poor health, and trying family situations, to name a few. All these problems are calculated to pressure you, the believer, farther and farther into the narrow way that leads to the very presence of God, where problems will no longer be a concern, but prayer, joy, and praise will be the course of the day.
Many make the mistake of rebelling against the problems they discover around them rather than submitting to God's purpose. Several atitudes are revealed when believers are surrounded by difficulties. Some, with great effort, begin to struggle against the funnel. They devise all sorts of methods and work to the point of exhaustion, hoping to get rid of whatever is causing so much misery. They have not learned that God does not do anything about problems if we're trying to solve them ourselves.
Since He is the only One capable of resolving the problem, the self-reliant believer is in the terrible predicament of being so confident in his own strength that he cannot allow God to provide the solution. After all, such a believer carries an invisible bag of tricks containing all the methods he has developed to deal with emergencies: control, manipulation, religion, anger, running, depression, resentment, emotional blocking, blame taking, blame giving, and the list goes on. If God allowed one of these tricks to resolve the problem, then He would be putting His stamp of approval on such pathetic tools for living, while at the same time encouraging a person's desire to be self-sufficient. It is important that God not allow the bag of tricks to help the believer overcome.
It is easy to spot those who are experiencing a failure of their bag of tricks, for they will become angry, withdrawn, and depressed and often will return to the old sins of the past in the hope that these will give some measure of relief. If they experience even the faintest shadow of the lessening of discomfort, they will once again be working full force on the problem with their satchel. In fact, these believers have a need to be cured from what is in reality a state of idolarty; an idol simply being that to which a person runs, apart from God, when in the midst of problems. These idols are varied and can include such things as eating, arguing, wiehdrawing, controlling, or hard work. Little bags of tricks reserved for resolving life's problems are in reality nothing more than idols, whose effectiveness God will do nothing to confirm.
We simply do not have the resources within ourselves to overcome our problems and live abundantly. There is one lesson that can be taken from the Pharisees, who possessed the most religious, disciplined, and educated of self-lives. Yet they rejected God Himself when they came fact to face with Him and are proof that the flesh is of no value in attempting to resolve conflict.
Some become so accustomed to problems that they actually decide this is all that life holds for them. They may complain about their distress, bemoan and lament over their problems, but in all their actions and talk they reveal that they are prepared to remain in this miserable state, for they believe that life in the funnel is all they will ever experience. Remember that the purpose of God's funnel is to bring us through and into His presence. There is no reward for staying miserable our whole lives! We must allow each circumstance to drive us into the presence of God, where we will find our relief.
~ Michael Wells, Problems, God's Presence, and Prayer