It is the mercy of God that we should encounter various trials.  Amidst every trial is our God who is lovingly calling to us through it, that we would shed ourselves of those things that can never sustain or fulfill us, and grasp onto the One who not only can sustain and fulfill us in this life, amidst the brokenness, but can sustain and fulfill us with joy perfectly in eternity.

Psalm 116:5-7 – “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.  The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.  Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”

It is only when we are weak, that we see our need for a savior.  Amidst the brokenness we see outwardly in the world, by God’s grace through the hearing of the gospel of Jesus, we can have eyes to see the brokenness that is within each of us – a heart that is sick, and in need of healing and come to hope in Christ.

Psalm 51:16-17 – “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Admittedly, I read this passage for 30 years to mean the brokenness and contrite heart that accompanies sin – that we are broken and contrite as sinners before our Creator God who is Holy when we sin.  This is true, of course, but this broken and contrite heart is not situational – meaning it is not meant to be present only when we are convicted of a specific sin committed; it is the condition of the heart of a Christian who is walking in humility and repentance moment to moment before God.

Matthew 9:10-12 – “And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

As a Christian, I have long struggled with pursuing my acceptance by God through holiness.  At the same time, when I failed, I would hide in shame, not wanting to let others know of my sinfulness for fear of their rejection or the rejection of God.  It was the mercy of God, through a trial that shattered my illusions of personal righteousness, put to death any idea of innate “goodness” in me.  Through a trial, I died to personal righteousness, and instead God has shown me in love that there is no one good except God alone, but He loves broken sinners, and only when we fully die to ourselves can we find our peace in Jesus and also be a minister of reconciliation through the gospel to other broken sinners like ourselves.

John 12:24-26 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

If there is any good in any of us, it is Christ in us.  The power of Christ is made perfect not in people trusting in their own morality, but in those who are walking humbly with their God through faith in Jesus in weakness.  His power is made perfect in weakness.

My exhortation brothers and sisters is to allow trials to remove the fecade of self righteousness, allow them to remove the fecade of self-determination, lose hope in everything else in the world, and Hope in Jesus, whose hope will never disappoint now and in eternity.  Let us proclaim with Paul in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Grace and Peace,

Adam