Have you ever superimposed your view of a worldly king to Jesus when relating to Him? I know I have and often times without even realizing that I did. Our paradigm of who Jesus is during our greatest weaknesses and struggles will often reveal how much of a worldly paradigm we have superimposed over Him as an authority figure in our life. Do you see yourself walking on eggshells when you think of Him as your authority figure or King? Do you see Him angry and displeased with you because of sin in your life? Let's look at some passages out of scripture to gain some insight on how God sees you during your struggles.
In Romans chapter 5 verse 8, the apostle Paul writes:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us
In Isaiah chapter 53 verse 4, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus saying:
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Jesus actually carried our griefs and sorrows and took on the full weight and intensity of emotion that came with it. In Hebrews 4:15-16(emphasis mine) the writer explains:
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus was tempted in every way we are tempted. As the passage in Hebrews says, Jesus can actually sympathize or relate to our weaknesses and temptations. He is not angry or displeased and actually encourages us to draw near to Him(His throne of Grace), in our time of need to receive Mercy and find the Grace He reserved for us in the moment. In fact, Jesus actually increases the Grace in our lives as we need it as shown in Romans 5:20-21:
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Since God is the giver and distributor of Grace, this should cause us to think about the intentions of God towards those stuck in sin. What does it say about God, that He would increase the Grace He is giving out when sin is increasing? The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
The apostle Paul explains to us that God's power is perfected in weakness, and that he (Paul) is actually happy about (boastful) about his weakness. Paul is obviously not endorsing that we feed into or off of our weaknesses. He is trying to explain that it doesn't have to be a source of discouragement for us because God wants to fill in the gaps in our life with His overly-sufficient power. This is good news! This means God isn't in the least hindered or discouraged by our weaknesses. This is reason enough to change the way we see and deal with our weaknesses. Let God fully into these places of weakness in your life and watch God's power be perfected in your life to bring the Kingdom every where you go.
If you are having trouble hearing God, do not be discouraged. A common pattern, that I have fallen into too many times, is to become discouraged or even upset with God I haven't seen an answer to my prayer. The better way that I have learned is to re-evaluate what I am praying or the question I am asking Him. God is not One who will allow Himself to be manipulated. Am I asking Him for something out of my pain? Do I expect Him to answer in the box I created for Him (my expectations of how God needs to answer my prayer)? Do I need to be fixed inside before I can have relationship with Him? Do I need to feel better, happy, or confident independent of Him? I have fallen into these traps way too often.
I have learned that the goal of any interaction with God should be to cultivate intimacy with Him without any other agenda. Since God will not manipulate you into coming closer, He will often speak silently to draw those who are hungry to be with Him. With all of this being said, the compulsion will be to go into our brains and over-analyze or over-evaluate how we are going to change ourselves to think differently. However, the real need is for us to silence our minds from any and all distractions and simply just be with Him. As explained above, He is not waiting for you to get your act together. He wants you to draw near to Him in your time of need and let Him be your help and comforter. He loves you and simply just wants to be with you, no matter where you are in life.
With heartfelt blessings and love,
Matthew
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