God is in control

God is in control, even in the midst of circumstances that appear otherwise.  God knows what we would like in life and He always answers prayer in the perfect way and timing.  God is faithful, trustworthy, and He always has our best interest at heart.  As an adolescent, I recall my mom saying at times, "God is not so concerned with our comfort as He is with our character".  Will living a life of prosperity, ease, happiness, and fame bring our hearts to the point of total surrender to God, where He is our everything and we realize His worth?  Most likely not.  This is because when everything is right in life and we are content and in need of nothing, what can God offer us?  It is through the trials and difficulties of life that God so clearly shows us our need for Him, because despite what most think about being self sufficient, we really do need God in every way.

God is the One who takes away our shame, our impurity, our guilt, our uncleanness, our wretchedness.  Like my Pastor has said before, "What is so hot about knowing evil?  What is so hot about feeling self disgust?  What is so hot about feeling that God is a million miles away from us?"

And what another Pastor once said about needing God's forgiveness over the sins we have committed, "I can't take this guilt that's overwhelming me!"

Here is a fraction of a letter I wrote in recent months to a friend: “Whether the sin in our lives is a "constant" struggle, or a sin we have played with off and on for years, we need to realize that sin separates us from God.  Have you noticed if you have sin in your life, the daily fellowship/communion you once enjoyed with God is no longer as appealing or as much of a commitment?  When we focus on sin, the sin becomes more desirable and what we think about often, instead of spending quality time with God each day, staying focused on God as our top priority, praying to Him and lifting up praise for who He is and all He has done, for all He has accomplished on our behalf, for every way He has delivered us and set us free, for delivering us from past sinful ways of living or thinking, and for His faithfulness to perfect the work He has begun in our lives.  Sin is so fleeting and only brings regret.  Like Timothy Keller stated in his sermon entitled, "Sin as Predator":  'Sin isn't done with you when you are done with it'.  Sin is serious!”

I appreciate what D.A. Carson said, "Surely all redeemed men and women will want to rejoice in the LORD.  Our sins have been forgiven.  Whatever happens to us...we're heading for heaven.  We have been declared righteous because another has borne our guilt.  We have been reconciled to the living God, our Maker.  We have received the gift of the Spirit, the down payment of the promised inheritance, Jesus is coming again.  One day we shall be like Him, and we shall see Him as He is.  We are children of the living God; we shall spend an eternity in the purest worship and in consummated holiness, enjoying Him forever.
If we fail to respond with joy and gratitude when we are reminded of these things, it is either because we have not properly grasped the depth of the abyss from which we have been pulled by Christ, or because we have failed to see the splendor of the heights to which we have been raised."

G.K. Chesterton said something to the effect of "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting.  Genuine Christianity has rarely been tried."