As sojourners in this world, it is easy for the believer to become enamored by the things that the world offers us that increase our ease or comfort, position or prominence. We are in a material world and it is easy to be attracted by the material things in this world that appeal to our flesh and that delight our eyes. Against this allure of the delights of the eyes and the comforts of the flesh we must always vigorously wage war, for while these temptations appeal to our fallen flesh, there is no spiritual benefit to be had in these things.

Notice the complete absence of any commendation for these things in the New Testament. While the New Testament warns of the temptations of wealth and declares that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, there is not one single exhortation to acquire wealth and there is no encouragement to pursue ease or leisure or comfort. These experiences lead to self indulgence and to laziness and the experiencing of the world’s pleasures creates a dangerous desire for more of those pleasures. The New Testament warns the believer to avoid these things and to pursue righteousness instead. The world’s pleasures produce none of sanctification and none of the works demanded of the believer, but rather their pursuit wastes time and produces nothing of lasting value.

Suffering, on the other hand, is the context from which the gospel spreads. It is the suffering of the saints that proclaims to the world the infinite worth of Christ and is was the sufferings of Christ which provided the redemption needed by His followers. Suffering drives away pride and dispels indifference and replaces these things with humility and steadfastness. The temptations of the flesh are silenced and rendered impotent by suffering because the flesh itself hates the pain of suffering. But for the believer, God has provided His gift of suffering, when the believer can most closely identify with His glorious Savior and can experience what the Savior experienced. I can never know what it is like to speak to a hurricane and have the wind and the sea obey my command for a hush, for that will never happen. I cannot know the divine power of commanding a corpse dead four days and rotting to stride out of the tomb, for only God can do that. But I can know the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings. I cannot shoulder the Cross to die for mankind, but I can willingly take up my own cross and embrace the suffering that my King has graciously allowed me to know, so that I can fully know the inestimable worth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, suffering is necessary for the believer, for suffering is the furnace that hones our faith and that purifies us from our fleshly sins like hyssop. The believer, then, is not to shrink from difficulty and hardship and suffering, but is to embrace them as the cost and the reward for following Jesus Christ. Suffering makes me more Christ-like and gives me fellowship with the Lord. Embrace, then, your cross of suffering, knowing that it is a gift from the Lord that carries with it a great reward.

Jesus is the great Transformer, the one who can rescue the most hopeless and miserable of sinners and change them into useful instruments for God’s glory. The New Testament is full of stories of just these people, who were utterly lost and going nowhere until they encountered Jesus, and Jesus transformed their lives. Saul the hater of Christians is converted into the Apostle Paul and takes the gospel to the ends of the earth with an unmatched zeal and boldness. Levi leaves his tax collecting and follows Jesus until he is killed as a martyr. Peter must lay down his fishing nets and take up the fishing for men that Jesus commanded him to do.

But there is perhaps no greater picture of the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ than the one given by the Gerasene demoniac presented in all three synoptic gospels, but most powerfully in Mark 5:1-20 and in Luke 8:26-39. I have been fascinated by this story ever since I first read it as a new Christian, how this man, who is presented as a man beyond all decency and seemingly beyond all hope of salvation, is completely transformed in his one brief encounter with Jesus. There are many aspects of the story that could provide us with teaching insights, but let’s just consider this one aspect now, that while everyone around him saw the demoniac as a menace and a threat, Jesus saw him as an evangelist. As the man howled among the tombs and cut himself on the rocks and as he shattered chains and ran naked into the wilderness, Jesus already saw him as one of His witnesses, a man who would, by his radically transformed life, testify to the great power that He had to change lives. Jesus had already determined that this man would be saved and would be used as His witness, so He went to the other side with an appointment to keep. He was going to save the demoniac and send him on his mission, then Jesus would return to the safe side of the lake.

Consider the contrasts presented in this story:
The people saw someone who was hopelessly unclean, but Jesus saw someone whom He would cleanse of all sin.

The people saw someone who was useless, but Jesus saw someone whom He would make useful.

The people saw a demoniac, but Jesus saw a saint and an evangelist and an ambassador for Christ.

The people saw someone who was dangerous to others, but Jesus saw someone who would be dangerous to Satan and to Satan’s kingdom.

The people saw someone to be shunned and avoided, but Jesus saw someone for whom He was going to die.

Jesus Christ went through a ferocious storm to the foreign side of the lake to save one man and then to return. Jesus knew that this man was one of His elect and so He obeyed the Father’s leading and went across the lake. But now we must realize another thing, also. If you are saved, your story is similar to the demoniac’s story. In a real sense, Jesus has done whatever it took to rescue you and, just like the demoniac, He has given you a mission. The demoniac knew that he was to go out and tell others about what great things Jesus had done for him. What about you? Has Jesus found in you a witness? Are you willing to tell the people in your city what great things Jesus has done in your life? The Lord Jesus endured the cross to rescue you from eternal condemnation. Though you were dead in your sins, He came to the other side of the lake to where you were and cast out your demons and gave you a new life and put you in your right mind. Now He has gone to heaven, but He is looking to you to find out what you will do with your salvation. Will you proclaim, or will you remain silent? Many need to hear what great things Jesus has done and what great things He can do. (RMB 6/10/2015)

SUMMARY: If I resist God’s process and instead demand that God operate on my schedule, my impatience will rob me of thankfulness. Instead, thank God for His PROCESS and let His PROCESS increase your perseverance and patience.

(This series of writings, “The Enemies of Thankfulness,” was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)

“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:18

Because I know that I am not as thankful as I should be, I have made a commitment to try to be thankful more often and to have vital, deep thanksgiving become a regular part of my prayers and my conversations. To help me in this endeavor, I am in the process of writing a series of blogs about what I call “the enemies of thankfulness,” prompted by John MacArthur’s excellent teaching on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 about the Christian’s responsibility to be thankful at all times and in all circumstances. One reason that Christian’s struggle with being thankful is that there are enemies to our thankfulness in our fallen world. So far in this series I have talked about the enemies of DOUBT, SELFISHNESS, WORLDLINESS and A CRITICAL SPIRIT. This blog will address the fifth and final enemy of thankfulness, the problem of IMPATIENCE.

There are two broad categories of impatience. The first category includes those things that make us spontaneously act impatiently, like traffic lights that don’t change fast enough or fast food lines that move too slowly. I am sure that you could add your own personal list of stimuli that cause you to act impatiently, things that are basically minor irritants. These irritants are trivial in the big scheme of things, but God places them in our lives to teach us patience.

There is a second category of impatience, however, which runs much deeper and wider than a mere irritation and is much more difficult to root out and vanquish. This is the profound form of impatience that at its core is a frustration with God’s process of change or of answering my prayers. The key word is PROCESS. God works through process, ordaining not only all things that come to pass, but also the timing of all that comes to pass.

We are rebels and thus we want immediate solutions to our problems. We tend to demand things from God, and one of the things we often want is an immediate end to our problems. God’s process tries our patience. The believer should realize that the process is just as important as the end, because both can produce a greater holiness. Rather than railing against the process, let the process produce in you perseverance.

It is the nature of our indwelling “flesh” to desire to be in control of both the outcomes and the timing. Even after we have been saved, our flesh cries out for control. The believer must, therefore, SUBMIT to God daily and TRUST the Lord as an act of the will. Trust God in the process.

Suffering and waiting are the instruments in God’s process which He uses to teach us perseverance. In our natural state, we are all impatient, but when God saves us, He places His Spirit inside us and gives us both the desire and the ability to increase our patience. Therefore in the midst of suffering and waiting, I should focus on the Lord Jesus and realize that He waited and He suffered perfectly (Hebrews 5:8) and He has given me an example that I should follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21ff).

BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF PATIENCE OR IMPATIENCE: Job, David (fleeing from Saul), Joseph, Abraham

APPLICATION: DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY. TRUST GOD COMPLETELY. You are a creature and have a very finite perspective on how God’s process is unfolding. As a human being, you also cannot see the end that God has in mind. God is in complete control of every process and has already determined every outcome. In God’s infinitely complex order of things there are no unknowns. He is master of all things and His timing is perfect for His intended outcome.
ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR DESIRED OUTCOME IS NOT NECESSARILY GOD’S DETERMINED OUTCOME.
ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR TIMING IS NOT NECESSARILY GOD’S TIMING.
ALLOW THE TESTING PROCESS TO INCREASE YOUR PATIENCE AND TO INCREASE YOUR THANKFULNESS. In the midst of the deepest trial, give thanks to the Lord for His abundant goodness and praise Him for all He has done. (RMB 6/8/2015)

(For a slightly fuller treatment of this subject, see the separate page on this WordPress site called “God’s Process and Our Patience.”)