My goal is to post at least three times a week until I get caught up with the other blog. So here I am, about to talk about what was one of the hardest things I've ever read. Very sad, but very much able to be explained.
Here's the post.
I think, for every Christian, reading that ending is rough. It should be; we love our God and hearing someone speak about Him in such a way is offensive. It's also saddening because it's obvious that Throendy worked very hard to try to do what she thought was right; she read the Bible, she prayed, she even sought help from the leadership.
But even in her words, you can find the error. She WORKED for it. She was trying to WIN God's love. She fought for it and she failed. It's sad, very sad. But the fault is in the theology, not in God. No person can WIN God's love; that's why Christ had to come and die. If we could earn it, win it, work for it, the sacrifice of Jesus would be the most unjustifiable waste imaginable. Why would an Infinite God die for finite people, if the people could earn salvation themselves?
There's a warning here for everyone who is living the life that Threnody and Lalaith did for so long. They were indeed wasted years for them and no one seemed to see the real problem. If you are calling and calling and God is not answering, you should probably reevaluate some things. Are you really a Christian? Are you calling improperly, pridefully, as if God OWES you an answer because you've done your Bible reading that week and gone to church (or whatever good thing)? Are you calling only because you're in trouble right now, but last month when everything was fine, you wanted nothing to do with talking to God?
That isn't Christianity; that's religiosity; that's works-based. Christianity is Jesus-based. Jesus paid the price; Jesus already bought God's love with His blood; now He gives it to us free of charge with the understanding that we can do nothing to ever earn it. No amount of time that we give Him, no amount of energy can ever begin to pay Him back. His sacrifice was infinite because He is infinite; anything we can give is finite because we are finite.
Back to the questions. Those are a few things that you can ask yourself as to why God might not be answering you. The Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." If you have sin that's just sitting in your life and you're not doing anything about it, why should God listen to you? You're already not doing what He's said to do. Why would He give you more directions if you're not taking the first step? What parent tells their two year old five things they have to do when the two-year old isn't doing the one thing that they have to do every day?
Repent and believe. Repent of your sins (this isn't saying, "I'm sorry I did X"; repenting is turning away, it's wanting to leave them all behind; it's running the opposite direction. If you were a drunk, it'd be seeing a bar and immediately turning around and RUNNING the other way. That's repenting; taking action to leave it behind. Repenting doesn't mean you never sin; it means at that moment, you never want to sin again); believe in Jesus (believe that He is Who He says and that He's done what He said; He is God; He died to save sinners). This formula works for Christians and non-Christians alike. It's what happens when we're saved; it's what happens when we fall down afterwards.
If we repent as Christians but don't believe, we get depressed. We fall into despair because we hate our sin and want nothing to do with it, but we're not believing that Jesus can help us. If we believe but never repent, we also get depressed because there's no relationship; we have sin in the way all the time.
The other thing I want to touch on is the reasoning behind religiosity (works-based religion). People look at Christians who are DOING things, good things, and they see it as working FOR acceptance with God. There are two possible reasons for this: One is that the people just can't imagine NOT having to work for it; the other is that the Christians are doing good things for the wrong reasons. Like the Church at Ephesus, they've left their first love. They're doing all the good works, but they're not doing them out of love for Jesus anymore.
What people should be seeing is something that they don't understand. They should be seeing Christians who are serving God happily, not because it's their duty or their job, and definitely not because they're trying to EARN some favor with Him; but they should be working for God because they love Him. We don't serve to get saved; we serve BECAUSE we're saved. It's just like a job. You don't work in order to get hired; you work BECAUSE you were hired. We don't serve to get God's love; we have God's love so we WANT to serve Him.
One last thing that deserves being mentioned. The Bible says that God is love. What people don't understand is that what they want is not real love. Without the saving work of Christ Jesus people are addicted to sin; feeding their addiction is what they want; it is not what they need and it is definitely not what is loving. In not giving them what they want, He is being loving. They just can't see it - because they're addicts.
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