Foul Weather Christian

Transcription

1 Becoming a Foul Weather Christian T wo Sundays ago I introduced you to an obscure Old Testament author with the funny pen name of Habakkuk (which meant, in the Hebrew language, The Wrestler ). This man of God lived in a time of moral and spiritual decline, societal and governmental corruption, and many looming dangers, both from within and outside his country. He took his nation s desperate needs to God as all believers are motivated to do and hoped that the Lord would respond by sending a national revival. That is not what happened, though. Instead, The Wrestler is given a warning by the Lord that things will have to get worse before they get better, and that this is part of His sovereign and ultimate plan. It s comparatively easy to be a Christian when everything is going well in our personal lives and in the world around us. When the sun is shining and blessings abound, it s natural to praise God. But when storm clouds roll in and winds blow, when the present is painful or the future uncertain, that s when praising God and trusting in Him in spite of our circumstances shows our true spiritual maturity. Today s topic is Becoming a Foul-Weather Christian. We will return to the Book of Habakkuk and see what we can learn from this ancient prophet and what God might say to our own troubled times. 2 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

2 2 Then the Lord replied: Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 4 See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness. Habakkuk 2:1-4 8 Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. 9 Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin! 10 You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. 11 The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. 12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice! 13 Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:8-14 2

3 Fair or Foul? It is foul-weather Christians who make the greatest impact for God. And it is foul-weather friends who are the ones we find are most desired and most dependable. We all have fair-weather, casual, comfortable friends and acquaintances, those who are willing to offer companionship when everything in life is pleasant. But when we face real problems, when life is no longer fun and easy, who do we turn to? Who can we call in the middle of the night? Who can we share our secrets and problems with? Though they may be relatively few, compared to the many fair-weather friends we have, it is the foul-weather friends who are most precious. Several years ago, in an extensive cover story, BusinessWeek magazine told a touching story of a couple who discovered the difference between fair-weather and foul-weather friends. A couple named John and Colleen lived in Midland, Michigan. John worked in senior management for the Dow Corning corporation, a large joint venture of Dow Chemical and Corning Glass that specialized in silicon and silicone products, including surgical implants for reconstructive breast surgery. Colleen had received silicone implants made by Dow Corning after breast cancer surgery years earlier. But in 1992 they leaked, the silicone spread through her system, and her doctors concluded that her immune system had been damaged. She had to have the implants surgically removed, her insurance wouldn t approve it because they said it was elective surgery, and the couple asked the company to pay for the operation. They refused, because their lawyers advised them to never admit that their product had any flaws. John and Colleen decided to join a class-action suit against Dow Corning to get help with their medical bills. And then they discovered that, in addition to the pain, health issues and mental anxiety the couple had been going through, they began to experience social shunning and rejection. Most of their friends were also employed by Dow Corning, the largest business in the community. And because Colleen s illnesses were seen as a threat to 3

4 the corporate posture of innocence, those friends now turned their backs on them. Finally John decided that the pressures, which he felt daily at the office (where he was seen as an internal enemy to the company), and which they both felt whenever they encountered other Dow Corning people in the supermarket or drug store (and were treated like social lepers), were too great. John decided to quietly circulate his resume, and when he found another job with another company in another community out-of-state, they packed up and moved. Their long-time acquaintances had proven to be fair-weather friends, who weren t there for them in a time when they most needed support. Fair-weather friends are the worst kind. They have the capacity to hurt us far deeper than strangers ever can. They betray us when we need them. What we all long for are true foul-weather friends. And what we all, as followers of Jesus, should desire to be are foulweather friends to others. Is there someone you know who is going through a hard time in life right now? Maybe they ve lost someone they love, or have health issues or job issues or are struggling with depression or discouragement. Maybe they re nearby, on your block or in your community; maybe they re a thousand miles away. Perhaps God is going to put someone on your heart, to reach out to them or contact them today and offer your support. Or perhaps you are in need of help and support, and God is prompting you to reach out to someone you trust to let them inside your situation. In the same way, fair-weather Christians, who drift away from the Lord when it s not convenient or pleasant to serve Him, are the most disappointing to the cause of Christ in the world. Thankfully, we have powerful positive examples of people who remained true and resolute in their faith, even when times are hard. One of those positive examples is our Old Testament author The Wrestler. How does he deal successfully with the storms of life? We find first, in chapter two, that he adopts the position of the Watchman. He mentally climbs the steps of the watchtower, resolved to wait patiently and prayerfully for the Lord to work in His time and His way. The watchtower was the highest place in the city. It 4

5 was the place where a person could go to get away from the stresses of the streets below, a place to think and pray with less distraction. And it was also the place to go to watch for help to come. (If a city was under siege, its soldiers would be watching from the highest point on the walls, scanning the horizon for friendly troops to appear and bring them relief.) It s helpful for us, in fair weather and in storms, in times of success and times of stress, to build into our lives opportunities to climb the steps and be in the watchtower with God. A Glimpse of God s Plan Then in verses 2 and 3 The Wrestler gains new perspective. God helps him to see the divine plan, or at least a glimpse of it. There are certainly times when things that are happening seem to make no sense to us, but other times when we are able to grasp at least part of God s perspective and His purposes. I read recently in a Christian magazine the true story written by a mother about how God helped her to see a purpose in a difficult and seemingly senseless situation. Her husband had been a tenured professor at a small college in New England, with life secure until a disaster struck. The college, due to financial and budgetary pressures, decided to shut down his entire department, and he was thrown out of work. Jobs in academia are hard to find, and after a long search and the depletion of their savings he finally was hired as an associate professor at a large state university in the south. The couple and their two sons packed up and moved to a whole new and strange place. For the next six months the transition was very difficult. They felt like aliens in a strange world. They couldn t understand why God had allowed them to be ripped away from their comfortable and stable life in small-town New England. Candidly, they were more than a little angry with God for what had happened. And then things got worse. Their youngest son became deathly ill, with a high fever and bizarre symptoms. He was rushed to the teaching hospital affiliated with the university. And there he was diagnosed with a rare and potentially deadly blood disorder. 5

6 But it just so happened (by coincidence or providence you decide) that the world s leading expert on that rare condition was a professor at that very medical school. If he had not been there, the boy probably would have died within 24 hours, undiagnosed. The doctor s quick action saved his life, and got him the right new medication that eventually cured him. And the pastor and members of the church they had just begun to attend surrounded that family with love and prayer and support, so that they became deeply bonded to their new church. The experience, as frightening as it was, changed their lives. And the mother, writing her story, could now see at least some of the reasons why God had pulled them up, roots and all, and replanted them where He wanted them to be. Through that storm of adverse circumstances, their faith became much stronger and their relationships with new friends became much deeper. Sometimes we are given similar glimpses, even if in hindsight, of part of God s plan and the workings of His sovereign purpose. The short book of Habakkuk draws to a close with a clear statement of faith and confidence in God, in spite of circumstances, that shows the author has learned how to be a foul-weather believer. Let s read these final verses: 16 I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 6

7 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3:16-19 He acknowledges that the news of coming hardships has triggered anxiety and dread (his lips quivered and his legs trembled ). Yet, it says, he will continue to trust in God and wait patiently for His purpose to be completed. Times are going to be tough for him and his people. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. And then he reveals the inner resource that brings him through: The Sovereign Lord is my strength. He is not relying on himself and his own courage or resourcefulness. He is going to cling to God alone. Accessing the Power A young American engineer was transferred for a year to work in a plant his company owned in the city of Narvik, Norway. As part of their culture of hospitality, his Norwegian co-workers would regularly invite him into their homes for meals. He began to notice that in every home he saw the same regular features. There were always large stoves or fireplaces in the homes even though there was rarely a fire burning in them, and there were always lots of unlit candles scattered around the homes. This was in spite of the fact that, with all the rivers in Norway that lead into the many fjords, the country has cheap and abundant hydroelectric power, and all the homes are well-lit by light bulbs and warmed by electric heaters and furnaces. One of his hosts explained that, in the years before electricity, and especially north of the Arctic Circle, where homes were dark and cold much of the year, lit wood fires and candles were the only way to survive the winters. And so the candles and wood stoves served as reminders of what life was like before power came to them. The American, a Christian, wrote about this in a daily devotional guide, using our final verse as his text: The Sovereign Lord is my strength. How ironic that Norwegians for centuries lived close 7

8 to ample rivers, but they had never figured out how to harness those rivers to provide electricity to power their homes until the past hundred years. He then posed the question: Have I, as a Christian, sometimes lived like the old Norwegians, failing to access the power that was available to me? The power of God as Habakkuk puts it, The Sovereign Lord is my strength is there for us if we draw upon it and apply it to our lives. How do we make God our source of strength? We do like Habakkuk. We take time to climb into the watchtower and be with Him Bonita Beach Road Bonita Springs, Florida fpcbonita.org