Saturday, January 28, 2012

What Does the Gospel Have to do with everyday struggles?

So, lately it has been a lot.  Little Man has been escalating with his anger responses and screaming most of the time at home.  I am depleted.  Most days I start with prayer and struggle through the day.  Why doesn't God just make it easier?  Does Little Man really have to poop and vomit on top of the screaming?  When I ask these questions and those like them, I am starting from the point that I do not deserve this.  That somehow my life should be better than this. 
It is not the point of the Gospel (good news) in the Bible.  I am a wretched sinner, an enemy of God (Rom. 5:10).  I think the minute I forget that is the minute I am in danger of thinking I deserve better.  I don't deserve better.  In fact I am that screaming hateful angry child to God, my Father, when He has only been loving and gracious to me. 
At Bible Study this week the ladies and I looked at Romans 5:1-5.  It talks about the peace offered to us through Jesus and the grace he offers to us.  So that we can rejoice in our suffering.  That suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.  So there is purpose in this.  There are benefits to suffering.  If fact that is how we gain hope and that satisfaction, real satisfaction in Jesus that cannot be taken away through circumstance.  It is the daily often moment to moment reminding myself of who I am and what it cost Jesus to redeem me, then I can extend grace to this needy child who has been hurt in his short little life. 
2 Corinthians 8:1-2 talks about a church in a "severe test of affliction" their abundance of joy overflowed....  That is not how I feel.  So the Bible indicates that hard stuff will happen and that reliance on God's grace will enable us to overflow with joy.  How do I rely on His grace when it feels like a struggle to survive?  Ephesians 3:14-18 helps with accessing that grace in the midst of hardship:  "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of Christ."
I want that.  Why do I forget so easily that I have access to such a deep, deep well of grace and love.  I think it starts with remembering that I am a sinner, redeemed with Christ, and sustained by His grace which is more than enough to fill me when I am depleted.
On a funny note, I made up a "I am a sinner" song to help me remember the Gospel when the screaming is endless. 

No comments:

Post a Comment