Lately I've been struggling with church. Every Sunday I go and hear about what is wrong with me and what I should be. For example, I've learned I should:
Treat the people at my church like family
Not hide my light
Exalt Jesus as King over my life
Be more trusting
Be content
etc. ... etc. If you've been to church a lot you've probably heard similar ideas.
One thing I love about my church is how faithful it is to constantly go back to the gospel: the idea that it is finished, that we are forgiven because Jesus paid the price, and we receive this forgiveness through God's gift of faith and it is not by works so that no one can boast!
The only problem is that this often get's tagged on at the very end of a guilt tripping sermon that ends up sounding (at least to me) a bit like this:
You aren't doing this, you should do this, mostly because God tells you to, but I'll go on for a bit more about why you should do this, if you don't do this you aren't really saved, so please just do this, oh by the way, if you are depressed because you suck don't worry, you can't be forgiven by doing this thing that you should do, your salvation is by grace not by works so that no one can boast so it's all good.
I often seem to be the only one who finds this ridiculously confusing and small group becomes about answering my question (asked for the hundredth time) seeking clarification that we are not saved by works because the sermon (once again) seemed to suggest that.
Usually I just wind up looking like a stupid idiot whose thick skull is impermeable by the truth. (which isn't exactly untrue, I am a bit of a stupid idiot, but still)...
Here is why I think it get's so confusing.
We are forgiven despite what we do and doing good stuff doesn't earn us salvation.
BUT true faith (which I believe has to be a gift or otherwise we could boast about our faith) will produce works.
Therefore, we don't want to be encouraging each other to just keep on doing dumb stuff because then we're all going to have dead faith because true faith produces good works.
BUT if your plant is dying you don't glue on leaves, you water it and give it fresh dirt.
I could be wrong but here's my perspective:
If there are no works in my life, my faith must be broken. All I can do is cry out to God and keep seeking him, going to church, small group, and reading the word to find out more about the only one who can change me rather than trying to change myself.
However, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to sit around doing dumb stuff waiting to magically be changed. I'm all for trying to do good and turn from bad but I think we gotta be careful about how we think about this.
I could be wrong but I figure: do good not to earn salvation, forgiveness, or heaven. Do good cause God said to and because we've seen that He loves us, so we trust that His way is better. Then when you fail don't stress, cause you are forgiven.
So why do good? Not to earn salvation, but because, if you think about it, a lot of what He says to do MAKES SENSE, and it is the BEST way to live.
There are two potential problems with this way of thinking. One: the prosperity gospel is false, and Two: God's ways aren't always going to make sense to our human brains.
One: it's true that people could hate you for being a Christian, you'll still get sick, you could still lose your job and become homeless. Christianity doesn't guarantee you a materially perfect happy life BUT I would argue that it gives you another kind of happy life.
Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. It is said that all things work together for the good of those who love God.
I would suggest that, though following God could lead to homelessness, you can still have joy because you know and trust that God is in control and that beauty can come from apparent darkness and because you know that heaven is coming and because you are freed from guilt. You don't have to feel pressured to do everything right and beat yourself up if you lose your job because you know that you are forgiven and that this apparent awful situation could bring about the greater good. Maybe you will meet someone in need on the streets and tell them about Jesus and keep them from taking their life!
I think following God leads to a better life, just a different(and better) kind of better than what we may be used to thinking about. And I think that's why we should follow Him, because we trust Him.
Two: what about when things don't make sense to our human brains? What about when we can't comprehend why or how God's way is better than ours? I could be wrong but here are my ideas: 1 - if we can't trust God we'll be forgiven, sanctification is a slow process 2 - we learn from our pasts, hind site is 20/20, look back has God ever said to do something that sounded crazy that you can see now made more sense than your plan? It's through those things that we start to see that God is way smarter than we are and it makes sense to follow him. 3 - This is where faith and trust come in. It's hard to trust God cause we are stupid humans but it makes sense even if we can't see it.
So, if (by some wild chance) I was right, why don't people preach about how awesome and trustworthy God is to inspire us to follow Him instead of just telling us what we should do? I get that it is important to know that I suck to see that God doesn't and that it is important to know what I should be doing so I can work on trusting God enough to do it, but I feel like people don't talk enough about how amazing God is when this is what is going to inspire me to trust him.
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