Terms and Conditions pt 1

1 Peter 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

No one really reads the iTunes terms and conditions before downloading the newest software update, or the e-signature tax filing agreement on H&R Block's website, or even the healthcare forms of consent before visiting the doctor. Yet these things are legally binding agreements I agree to, and could have huge implications on my life if something went awry. These agreements have weight over our lives.

In the same way, I see that tendency in my own life as I read the Bible. Some days I will be reading out of habit or because I know I should, and gloss over it until I know I'm getting to a familiar verse, or even think to myself I "understand the jist of this..." when all I should be doing is striving to know the whole council of God. To know line upon line, precept upon precept. Why would I act this way? It's not always on purpose, it's mostly from a lack of discipline and lolly-gagging around in daydream land. Not only does Scripture hold weightier implications on my life today, but eternally; immeasurably more than said documents I flippantly consent to. Knowing God by his revealed word means that I need to focus in devotional times, and not go down mental rabbit trails as God is trying to speak to me.

Well this morning I read the verse above found in 1 Peter 3, and I was struck by three major principles. It caused for a hard look at my life, even now despite the many areas of life and ministry where I esteem to obey and serve The Lord. God spoke to me in a still small voice, and yet so profoundly. Again with this regular theme in my life of "well of course that's true", they are seemingly simple principles, but life changing altogether. They are as follows:

1. As if God said this to my heart, "Hayden, of course you will face suffering. You have suffered in the past and Jesus himself said in this world you will have tribulation. I do not delight in your pain, but rather I have a plan that your parochial, finite view cannot see, and I do want you to grow in holiness closer to me. The principle of the refiner's fire, the true test of character, the Holy Spirit being sent to you as Jesus prayer is recorded in John 17, the author of Hebrews calling Christ the Author AND Perfector of your faith - seeing my faith to it's full completion." All that truth coupled with the reality that, yes, suffering is inevitable. It may and probably will look different than the suffering of 1st and 2nd century Christians, suffering the Jews faced in Auschwitz, or even what Arab Christians face today in the Middle East, but suffering exists all the same. Even just being in the flesh and having to have a knowledge of the law and then exposed to rampant sin, as Paul expressed in Romans 7. Suffering, in whichever form God allows for my life or those around me, in pagan 21st Century America, is ultimately for his glory, and not our resting place, but thorn bushes we have to press through on this straight and narrow path through the valley of the shadow of death. 

Time fails me to write the rest of my thoughts today, so points two and three will be addressed in follow up posts. I'm incredibly grateful that God is bringing me out of this plateau stage of life and into the running again. Soli Deo Gloria.