Is God Cruel?

Nothing Else is Required

If ever you find yourself in the midst of terrible suffering, the only requirement God has of you is to "patiently endure." Revelation 14:12  This has proven to be a helpful truth for me, because not all suffering is physical. Sometimes I suffer from bouts of dark depression, where nothing feels good, and accomplishing tasks, even spiritual ones, seems like a pointless exercise in futility.  

Sensing a golden opportunity to torment me further, satan takes full advantage of those dark, stormy periods (which no doubt he has produced in the first place), coming into my mind to harass me all the harder, raining down blistering hot accusations of guilt and condemnation because I'm not being busy producing more for the Lord as I know I should. 

In the past satan has sometimes won this battle against me, whereby the boiling smoke of my brimstone shame for my poor productivity causes my depression to become even more toxic, completely blotting out the goodness of my God from my sight, making my heart-wrenching turmoil and despair all the more excruciating.   

If this has also been your experience, then let me encourage you that when you find yourself desperately struggling against your own personal darkness or whenever you are ambushed by your favorite sin, fighting with all your might to main your purity, then know that God does not expect anything else from you. Our Loving Creator knows full well that when you are in hand-to-hand combat, it already takes everything you've got to prevail against your hard and determined opponent named Temptation.  

When Job was in the midst of his suffering, sitting there painfully on the ground and scraping puss off his boils with a broken piece of pottery, Job 2:7,8  God neither expected or demanded that he attend a prayer meeting or teach a church seminar or lead the discussion group at a Home Fellowship. All that was expected of Job was that he not curse God in the midst of his dreadful and mysterious torments. Job 2:9,10  If all the spiritual energy you can muster is just to hang on to your faith, then that is all that is required. All the good works can come later, so be encouraged that God does NOT require anything else from you than this.

Fight and fight to win, and that will be enough!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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