Unconditional

THIS WEEK I am celebrating six years since Jesus saved me. Six years since eternal life began. I've seen that Jesus doesn't take away all the problems we face, but He gives us hope through them. His love keeps us from despair, and His faithfulness keeps us from hopelessness. And He gives us joy in all seasons of life. I am thankful for Him.

Pastor Russ likes to describe life with Jesus as "having Jesus in your boat." Like when His friends had to wake Him up on a storm-tossed boat, and He calmed the sea. He scolded them for weak faith. This is because they should have remembered that when He is on the boat, no matter what things look like, nothing is going to happen to that boat that isn't okay with Him. If it sinks, and He is going down, it's because He decided it should be that way. If He chooses to calm the sea, it's because He prefers it that way. But because we're following Jesus, wherever He goes, we go too, and we need to trust Him in all circumstances.

I was reading Job 6-8 earlier this week. It's one of many parts when Job is complaining, thinking that God doesn't care and that he hasn't done anything wrong against Him, and his friend tries to make him see things differently. He thinks like a lot of us think:

Job 7:20 "If I sin, what do I do against You, You watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your mark? Why have I become a burden to You?"

At first glance it seems like a good question. If we do things wrong, what does God care? He is all-powerful and owns everything. What is a little sinner to Him? The answer is that He hates the sin that obstructs a relationship with Him. He wants the people.

In Job 8:11-13, Job's friend Bildad responds: "[11] Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? [12] While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. [13] Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish."

After reading these chapters I noticed something which I think is a major theme in Job's whole story. Because God's nature is independent of our circumstances, our faith in Him should also be independent of our circumstances. In other words, because nothing in our lives can change who He is and what He does, we must keep trusting Him even, and especially, when life gets hard. Like I was saying in a recent post, He understands our situation much better than we do, and He wants us to trust Him even when we don't understand. Because His trustworthiness is unconditional, it is only right that our trust in Him should be unconditional.

Interestingly, my youth pastor discussed this same idea on Wednesday. He used a verse from Proverbs 3 which you might know. I read it to my grandma on Thursday, and she told me that it is probably her favorite verse.

Proverbs 3:5-6 "[5] Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. [6] In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."

This means that we should trust the Lord unconditionally instead of thinking we're smarter than Him. It means that when we ask for His help, He'll give it, and when we honor Him for who He is, He show who He is.

At church today, once we were done with the Lord's Supper, we rose and sang a special, simple song. It was written by Horatio Spafford after the death of four of his children. It goes, "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, It is well with my soul."

So don't be discouraged. Whether things look great for you right now, or whether things are truly awful so that you don't want to get out of bed, don't stop trusting God. The strength of our faith shows when we choose to trust Him regardless of our circumstances. And He rewards that trust with the strong and undeniably obvious assurance of His presence, a hand on your shoulder, and peace in your heart, which, I think, is what we all really need.