KEEP IT REAL

Have you ever heard the statement that once you decide to follow Jesus, your life makes this dramatic turn for the better, a turn that includes being “blessed” and having everything “work out” for you. Now don’t get me wrong, I think following Jesus is the very best way to live your life, the way we were created by God to live. I just struggle with this image of being a Christian that tells people that once they “come to Jesus” everything just seems to “work,” everything just gets better and better. Where did we get these notions about God?

This is not the truth that the Bible presents. The truth is the Bible is filled with people who chose to follow God, only to see their lives not get better, but in fact get worse. The truth is the Bible is filled with people who cried out to God from the depths of their soul, “Where are you, God?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.”—Psalm 22:1-2
 
The reality is that genuine Christ-following is not something that avoids the difficulties of life, sweeping them under the rug of faith. Real Christ-following is something that embraces life as it is — with all its difficulties and struggles — seeing that what is, is not what will always be, that things can change.
 
Early followers of God understood this. They knew that a relationship with God was a dialogue, often filled with very real and very raw emotion. They argued, questioned, and even doubted God. They expressed their feelings of abandonment and disappointment with Him. They expressed their frustration and feelings of betrayal. In short, they lamented. They reminded God of His past faithfulness to their ancestors, crying out from their present pain, asking Him to be faithful once again. Still, they knew that God was big enough for all these emotions and more.
 
If you’ve ever felt like God has left you, or that God has abandoned you — you’re in good company. God’s Word is full of people who felt just like you do. If there’s one thing that the Church needs to recapture, it is this sense of lament. 

So what about you? How real are you in your relationship with Him? How do you see God? Where do you have this sense that God has left you? Where do you need God to be faithful once again? Keeping it real and crying out to Him, with sincere and honest emotion is perhaps the most faith-filled thing you could ever do. It’s not like you’re hiding what you are honestly feeling from Him. He knows. He cares. He’s listening.

Keep it real! Cry out from the depths of your being... He has been faithful in the past, and He will be faithful once again. 

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