If you have made it this far, my clickbait must have worked. But don’t go so fast.
I have a personal answer for those of you like myself, who have questioned God for the problems in your life and the personal struggles you face.
For me it’s been depression.
I’ve questioned God a few of these past nights. I asked questions like “why can’t I just think like everyone else”, “why can’t I see beauty and joy in simple things”, or even “why am I alive”.
Questions like these may have become more and more common in a society where living is less and less sought after. Fantasies roam around every corner providing an escape for the young and unhappy. Soon enough we will also have more adults disconnected from reality.
I say this because through social media, video games, television, and telephones, we are continually investing in intangible things that produce intangible fruit.
People trade dreams jobs for virtual video game replicas. Others trade social interaction for blue messages of distant inauthentic conversation. Some watch television for a fractional experience of the things that they should so progressively go out and experience themselves.
Most of us have done all three of these things.
I shouldn’t even contrast these statements and say that it’s okay to indulge these sometimes. The truth of the matter is this; that if something was a problem for you at one point, it’s going to be difficult to reverse this effect. In the same way that toxic relationships end and people don’t stay friends after.
Those are some of the present factors of the depression. However we don’t seem to have many or any encapsulating answers from God on the subject of why.
Or so I thought..
It hit me hard when I was reading this passage in Matthew 15
“Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.”
Matthew 15:29-31 ESV
I read the verses again, but this time, I replaced the illnesses with more subjective and personally relevant struggles.
And great crowds came to him, bringing with them,
the depressed,
the anxious,
the selfish,
the hopeless,
and people of all different turmoils.
Then the crowd wondered as they saw,
The depressed now fulfilled,
The anxious now at peace,
The selfish now selfless,
The hopeless now hopeful,
And they glorified the God of Israel.
I’m depressed to be fulfilled in God, and so on.
Only God can win these battles.
We are the great crowds bringing our individual problems to Jesus. He then heals us so we can walk freely. We see this again in Romans 8-
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
Romans 8:20-21 ESV
So although our burdens appear daunting to us, they are given to us for a purpose.
In order to glorify God.
That also means that for those who believe, and will continue to believe, you were not given anything in which you will not at some point overcome. it would be contrary to Gods character if you were.
God has observably found it better to reveal his power in a formerly broken generation than in a perpetually perfect and otherwise independent generation.
Can one who has never suffered loss console the one who has lost much? Who is better to bring others into freedom than the one who has already attained it? We are put in chains in order to break free, glorify God, and bring others into that freedom.
We all have pains, and Jesus had a specific pain as well (the cross), yet in each of the gospels, he is recorded saying the same phrase to the crowds.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Luke 9:23 ESV
Jesus is not saying walk behind me, but that we should follow his actions as he did.Jesus bore his cross, let his flesh die, and revealed the power of God more than any other person has.
We are to be Jesus, in the way that we are to overcome our cross, and bring glory to GOD in the victory.
the mute speaking,
the crippled healthy,
the lame walking,
and the blind seeing.
And they glorified the God of Israel.
The depressed fulfilled,
The anxious at peace,
The selfish giving
The hopeless hopeful,
And they glorified the God of Israel.
Hosea 6:1-6 is a beautiful set of verse that reiterates this mysterious cycle.
“”Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
?? Hosea? ?6:1-6? ?ESV
