Have you Heard?

So many of us came to Christ with the impression, or maybe even the expectation, that ALL of our hardships will disappear. It amazes me that either in an effort to "win" souls, and (for some) boost attendance and pad their stats, pastors will preach Jesus and invite people to come to Him under the terms that life will cease to have troubles. Maybe its not entirely the pastor's fault though. Perhaps there are those that all they hear is the "ease" and cessation of trials in a message or presentation of Jesus. This is indeed an intriguing and fascinating phenomena. ALL, and I mean everybody, wants to avoid pain, trials, troubles, etc. (if not, we have medications and therapists for such people). Now the interesting and intriguing aspect under this reality of trouble avoidance is this: we are to expect troubles (Jesus told us so), AND we are promised an eternity void of troubles.

There is a desire for the eternal (in terms of trial avoidance) in EVERYBODY'S heart (regardless of religious disposition or faith), yet this desire is for the most part inevitably and entirely self-subservient.

The amazing reality is that if you have ever heard the word of the Lord you know that it is often a bitter sweet morsel. That is to say, when God speaks (through a pastor, friend, His word, or His Spirit to your heart) it is more than occasionally hard to handle and face honestly. If you have not had this experience of a "harsh" word, then it stands to question that maybe you have never in fact heard His word. Hearing His word is difficult for the fact, like our self-subservient trial avoidance eternal desire, we naturally desire things counter-culture to the eternal kingdom of which are called and presently sealed up in.

The miraculous sweetness comes as we hear though.

As we spend time under His wing, immersed in His word, listening, waiting, and anticipating His presence even though it may be hard and "unnatural," our "nature" changes. As we abide (spend time affixed to the Lord) our present and eternal disposition changes. And our aforementioned trial avoidance desire of our eternal trial absent promise takes on a whole new meaning and identity. Though we are promised troubles and trials, and by our nature we seek to avoid them (rightly so), as we immerse ourselves in Jesus we are not troubled by the troubles and trials when they arrive for we have the eternal in our midst in the very present here and now!