In my last blog, I wanted
to share some of the dangers of embracing positive thinking philosophies if
they are not soundly Scriptural. I
offered other points of view about positive thinking by providing alternative
Scriptural contexts. I wanted to say if
all we are looking for is the icing on the cake (the good feelings), and
ignoring deeper issues of the heart, then it is possible that we are missing
out on all that God has in store for us.
Today I would like to talk about situations when positive thinking is
not enough to get us through the really rough spots in life. Sometimes, many times, God wants us to walk
through the dark shadows of the valleys in life because He wants us to live
more fully in Him, strengthen our faith, and love more deeply, as He does. Sometimes this is only possible through grief
and hardship. We must go through the
pain of losing something in order to gain something even greater. It is no coincidence that this has more
recently been my experience.
In the course of my
different forms of writing, sometimes I am called upon to respond to blatant
untruths as they continue to spring up on many different types of sites on the
Internet. It is a perfect opportunity to
spread the Word of God in whatever way possible, and also proclaim the truth of
a matter as kindly and thoroughly Scriptural as possible. This is not something I necessarily
enjoy. I'd rather continue the fun of
writing my newest fiction novel, but I know in good conscience that something
must be said. (Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is sin.)
I recently responded to a
post by a Universalist who doesn't believe that hell is a place of
"eternal" torment, but a temporary place where everyone will
eventually make it out once they've served their penance, and then be allowed
into heaven after a time. We know that
this is nowhere found in Scripture, so the Universalists take words that are
already there (death, hades, eternal, etc.) and re-write them to take out the
harshness of the reality of hell as an eternal place of torment. They also erroneously try and make God out to
be something He is not (for one, they eliminate the part of Him that is
righteous judge). Basically, by all
appearances they have no holy reverence or a healthy fear of God, so they can
create whatever kind of God they choose, and eliminate hell altogether. I wonder if we subtly do this when we choose
only the good things in life (positive thinking) and ignore the reality of the
pain of life and do not try to help or love others in the best way possible. (1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.)
My comment was in response
to a Universalist who had taken Scripture and twisted it to mean something
entirely different than intended. My
heart's intent was not to argue, but to continue to warn anyone reading, that
hell is real and not something to be trifled with. We may get many things wrong in this life,
but our eternal destiny is not something to take a gamble on. I also explained the purpose and importance
of salvation, and I also added the importance of reading ALL of Scripture and
praying for understanding. Needless to
say, my comments were not well received by one of the Universalists (not the
one I was replying to), and so he became malicious and slanderously responded
and put words in my mouth that I never would have said in a million years. I wondered if I should report this commenter
and have his comment removed by the webmaster.
But when I prayed about how or if I should respond, I got a
"no." God had something else
in mind.
As the day unfolded and I
was hurting from the cruelty of the commenter, something was happening in my
soul. For one thing, I began to realize
anew the lies, false accusations, humiliation, and deep pain of what Jesus had
to suffer at the hands of His persecutors.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from
him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
I discovered that what
personal suffering does is that it can make us better, or we can choose an
alternate attitude; we can choose to become bitter and too self-focused (want
to retaliate, self-pity, self-introspection, etc.). I realized too that God is my avenger. I didn't have to say anything to try and
clear myself of wrongful and hurtful accusations directed at me. All I did was pray for this situation and for
this misguided person. In addition to
this assault against me, many other things seemed to go wrong with my day. At one point I cried when I had lost
something (my bank card) and couldn't find it anywhere. So I had to go through the hassle of
cancelling it and then driving across town to the bank to get another one. And other things happened, my printer/scanner
wouldn't work, so it caused a great delay in getting my work done, and on and
on it went. I finally just laid it all
down and said, "Well Lord, whatever else this day has in store for me, I
give it all to you." Then I had a
peace in my heart, and I knew He was with me.
As it turned out, by the
end of the day, God did defend me and avenge the slanderous comment that had
been said about me. Someone else
(another commenter) soundly and rightly rebuked the person for assuming I would
say something that clearly I would not,
and he wrote an entire Scriptural response in defence of what I had said in the
first place. Wow! God is so awesome.
What did I learn from all
of this? I learned that rather than try
to fight the un-pleasantries in life, sometimes you just have to go with it and
give it to God. Positive thinking won't
be able to pull you out of it, only God can.
Sometimes He allows these things to happen to draw us closer to
Him. Most importantly, I learned that
what is most precious and priceless to me is to "share in the
fellowship" of suffering and discover more of the amazingness of God and
His love and faithfulness in ALL circumstances of life. There is nothing as joyful as seeing the
"living" Scripture unfold before your eyes. I love it when that happens.
So often, we can only
experience the grace and favor of God through difficult and trying
circumstances. In these situations,
there is only one remedy - draw close to God.
Positive thinking is not enough because it does not affect our heart and
entire soul and being. Only the Word of
God can do that. What is flesh is of the
flesh, what is spirit is of the spirit.
This is what Jesus said:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the
flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life.
I am not saying we should not think
positive. I even wrote a book about it
called, Power
Thoughts for Positive Thinking.
There are many Scriptures telling us how to think, but we need to be
careful we do not get swept away with worldly philosophies surrounding positive
thinking as some people present it. To
do so only robs us of a much greater and deeper experience in our walk with
God.
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