The truth will set you free, but first it may make you miserable!
We fool ourselves when we assume that just because we have heard or read or studied a truth, we have internalized it. Actually, you can be so busy going to the next class or seminar or Bible conference that you have no time to implement what you’ve learned. You forget it on the way to your next study. Without implementation, all our Bible studies are worthless. Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”25 Jesus also pointed out that God’s blessing comes from obeying the truth, not just knowing it. He said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”26
Another reason we avoid personal application is that it can be difficult or even painful. The truth will set you free, but first it may make you miserable! God’s Word exposes our motives, points out our faults, rebukes our sin, and expects us to change. It’s human nature to resist change, so applying God’s Word is hard work. This is why it is so important to discuss your personal applications with other people.
I cannot overstate the value of being a part of a small Bible study discussion group. We always learn from others truths we would never learn on our own. Other people will help you see insights you would miss and help you apply God’s truth in a practical way.
The best way to become a “doer of the Word” is to always write out an action step as a result of your reading or studying or reflecting on God’s Word. Develop the habit of writing down exactly what you intend to do. This action step should be personal (involving you), practical (something you can do), and provable (with a deadline to do it). Every application will involve either your relationship to God, your relationship to others, or your personal character.
Before reading the next chapter, spend some time thinking about this question: What has God already told you to do in his Word that you haven’t started doing yet? Then write down a few action statements that will help you act on what you know. You might tell a friend who can hold you accountable. As D. L. Moody said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.”
DAY TWENTY-FOUR
THINKING ABOUT MY PURPOSE
Point to Ponder: The truth transforms me.
Verse to Remember: “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31–32 (KJV)
Question to Consider: What has God already told me in his Word that I haven’t started doing yet?
25
Transformed by Trouble
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17 (NIV)
It is the fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of godliness.
Madame Guyon
God has a purpose behind every problem.
He uses circumstances to develop our character. In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible. The reason is obvious: You face circumstances twenty-four hours a day.
Jesus warned us that we would have problems in the world.1 No one is immune to pain or insulated from suffering, and no one gets to skate through life problem-free. Life is a series of problems. Every time you solve one, another is waiting to take its place. Not all of them are big, but all are significant in God’s growth process for you. Peter assures us that problems are normal, saying, “Don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you.”2
God uses problems to draw you closer to himself. The Bible says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit.”3 Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days—when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great—and you turn to God alone. It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayers. When we’re in pain, we don’t have the energy for superficial prayers.
Joni Eareckson Tada notes, “When life is rosy, we may slide by with knowing about Jesus, with imitating him and quoting him and speaking of him. But only in suffering will we know Jesus.” We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn any other way.
Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days.
God could have kept Joseph out of jail,4 kept Daniel out of the lion’s den,5 kept Jeremiah from being tossed into a slimy pit,6 kept Paul from being shipwrecked three times,7 and kept the three Hebrew young men from being thrown into the blazing furnace8—but he didn’t. He let those problems happen, and every one of those persons was drawn closer to God as a result.