All Wavers Forgotten

Disappointment

My faith faltered this week. I melted down when a setback occurred.  I was deeply disappointed by it; and frustrated and distressed.

I groused at God. I even raised my voice in protest.  My wife tried to talk sense into me but I would have none of it.

I was disappointed that life broke again and God didn’t intervene to protect me from the damage.

I could get specific but to what end? The what doesn’t matter.  You have them too, these issues and trials that seem insurmountable at first.  Your life seems to break down and maybe you do too.  Maybe you even yell at God.

But I got over it. Got over myself and reconnected with God.

How?  Through Jesus. When I am gone, my meltdown will be overlooked and even forgotten.  Fortunately, my acceptance by God is not dependent on me not wavering but due to my association with Jesus.  Because of Jesus, it’ll be as if I never wavered at all.

Check out how the apostle Paul remembers Abraham in his letter to the Romans (Chapter 4: 4-21). Paul credits Abraham with “unwavering” faith in God. Abraham’s faith in God was credited back to Abraham by God as “righteousness.”

You can’t claim righteousness for yourself.  It has to be credited to you by someone else.  You can’t get better than God crediting you with righteousness.  Due to this righteousness, God seemed for “forget” that Abraham had in fact wavered after all!

I read Abraham’s story.  It’s near the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis.  You can read it yourself.  Abraham wavered.  In fact, several incidents of his wavering are part of his story there. Like sleeping with his wife’s servant, Hagar (Genesis 16:3) and twice passing his wife Sarah off as his sister to save himself (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18)….  Aren’t those wavers?

Other “heroes of the faith” who are credited as righteous through faith also wavered. There’s a long list of them in Hebrews 11: Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Samson, and Samuel.  

David is on the list too.  While he is prominently featured in the Bible as a “man after God’s own heart.” what about when he slept with Bathsheba then tried to cover up her pregnancy by having her husband Uriah killed on the battlefield?  Isn’t that a waver?

They all wavered.  Yet they “were all commended for their faith” (vs. 39) and this was BEFORE Christ arrived on the scene to atone for them and all of us.

Here’s the point.  Faith is the point, faith in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can make any of us righteous and cause the forgiving and forgetting of all wavering and even yelling at God.

Because we matter to God, he made a way for us to be made right when we waver so we can enjoy a life-giving relationship with Him.  What a cool God!

Notes:

Image source: http://ritakampen.com/seasonal-affect-disappointment/