My heart is breaking, not because I have lost a family member or a close friend, but because a hard man with a hard heart and a foul mouth has told me that he is done with God.
This is not the first time that he has told me that.
From the beginning of our friendship, he said that God let him down, and he cannot believe in a God that would allow so much pain and suffering in the world. After many conversations and much time in prayer, he said that he was willing to give God another chance.
During these new conversations about God, he seemed to have that fire one gets when they first come to the Lord. But during all of these new conversations, I was concerned by what I was hearing. His newfound faith was all about fighting Satan. He was proud of standing up to injustice and of knowing the enemy was not going to win this time.
The more we talked, the more my concerns grew. I tried to encourage him that the battle is not ours, but God’s. It is not wrong to stand up against the injustices of this world, but it is not in our strength that we stand, but in the strength and victory of Jesus Christ, claiming Christ’s victory as ours.
After about six months of his newfound faith, he has decided that God is not worth the effort. He is truly demonstrating what we read in James 1:6, “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.” He has not learned what it means to put his faith in Christ. He has determined that if he claimed to be a follower of Jesus, he could defeat the enemy, not realizing that Jesus had already defeated the enemy at the cross.
So how does a heart break for someone more than rough around the edges? Let us make this personal. How can a perfect God love me, one who has messed up time and time again? Not just messing up by accident, but honestly knowing better, yet still deciding to walk down the wrong path.
Here is what I am learning. Jesus did not die for the perfect person that He’s calling me to be. He died for the sinful person that I am. And through it all, He is telling me every day, “My grace is sufficient for you, Chris. Please let go of self and let Me change you into the man that I am calling you to be. A man who ‘is as true to duty as the needle to the pole’” (Education 57.3).
As my heart breaks for my friend, I see a glimpse of what goes on in God’s heart when I choose to do my own thing instead of His. But my heart does not just break, my heart aches for my friend to finally see that Jesus still loves him and longs for him to let go of self, the lies of the enemy and the need to blame God for all the pain in this world.
Every day, I pray for my friend to be snatched from the grasp of Satan just as Jesus asked the Father for Peter. I pray that one day my broken heart will turn to a heart of joy as my friend truly gives his life to Jesus. Please join me in praying for my friend, but not just my friend, but all those that God is leading us to minister to on His behalf.
This world cannot last much longer. For many people, it will not last another day. How many are dying without the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ? God forgive us for the opportunities that we have wasted, and please give us opportunities to make it right.
Thank you for your prayers and your continued support in bringing the gospel to all peoples of the world. May God bless you and may you one day be able to share the amazing testimonies of what God has done in your life, not because we are worthy, but because Jesus Christ is. Amen.
