The first step in dealing with dashed hopes and unrealized dreams is to get new ones. Even spiritual ones, dream of doing great things for God, which is always more rewarding and even likely than our personal dreams anyway. The truth is when we tap in to God’s plans we are not limited to our natural abilities and assured of supernatural help. God has a great plan for your life is not just a Christian mantra, it’s true, He has plans for you, and they are great. Think about it, does God have any mediocre plans. He is able to and does do above and beyond what we ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20) So in this area more than the others we have to choice to either stall out in disappointment, discouragement and despair or we can say; God my plans didn’t work out, whats yours? All Things includes all the things we dreamed and desired than never came to fruition. Not that it was bad to dream them or wrong to dream them, but not all dreams come true, but all Gods plans do!
Contentment comes from God not things. Paul told Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6) and it is a sense of contentment that often flees when unforeseen circumstances have a financial impact. This established contentment as the target and makes the point that discontentment is learned behavior. We know this because there are impoverished people all over the world who, though they would like a change of financial circumstance, are still content and joyful people because godliness is great gain. It is easy for us to say when we encounter an economic downturn that we lost everything. That’s not true and we need to remember that all that we did have, the Lord gave us the strength to earn it and all that we have is actually His. This kind of thinking will help avoid a financial downturn from becoming a spiritual one. Job knew a bit about losing it all and his conclusion was; The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. (Job 1:22) Yes, even a financial downturn can work together for good, but we have to let God define good and let go of our human definitions.
We can also rightly place the sad but true reality of fractured fellowship in the All Things category. Whether fractured fellowship ought to happen or is completely avoidable is irrelevant for our causes, because it does. Pastors and parishioners, leaders and layman hurt one another and much of it is definitely miscommunication or misunderstanding, but not all of it. Some is pride and ego. No matter which side of the pulpit or lectern you may be on; Don’t blame God for what people have done. Remember the thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) and the more he can divide the church the more he steals, kills and destroys the unity of the Spirit. He hates the church and everyone in it, He loves discord among the brethren because God hates it. The more of it he can cause them more he is pleased. This is why the Lord has given us clear cut instructions on how to deal with our differences. Every pastor, every church leader, every Sunday school teacher has the capacity to fail and hurt others, and God is responsible for none of it. Yet, because thy fail, many fracture fellowship with their church or even have a crisis of faith, but remember; It just doesn’t make sense to give up on God when humans fail.
Jesus said the world will know we are His disciples by the love we have for one another (John 13:35) I wonder what the world thinks about the church when they see fractured fellowship? Jesus statement implies that their conclusion will be that we are more like them than him. God allows time to repent… of sin. We have to make sure that feelings, emotions and opinions are not causing fractured fellowship and an actual, I can find it in the Bible, sin has been committed and the process for dealing with it lined out in Matthew 18 by Jesus is followed. I think most you you could agree when I say; I am glad God has not treated me the way I have wished He treated others at times. The best isn’t always true but in thinking the best is where our mind should start until proven otherwise and yes, All Things including fractured fellowship can work together for the good of the called according to His purpose. It is good when biblical discipline is followed and it is good when restoration of a sinning brother or sister occurs. The guidelines must be followed to the letter to see the good come out of fractured fellowship.
I want to conclude our “dance lesson” with a couple of closing thoughts. We’ve talked candidly about some hard things, things that our flesh will instantly reject, things that our emotions will resist, things that we will have a hard time getting our head around. Specifically, moving forward without closure. It may feel like that and your mind and emotions may be robbed initially of what it thinks it needs to move on, but moving forward is closure. The truth is however, you have to want it and you have to believe it because we will never have or do what we don’t fully believe. If you are not convinced that it is possible for All Things to include what you endured or encountered in life, then Dancing with the Scars will be an illusive dream and not a present reality. You will have to push forward in and with some pains, but you must believe that the biblical phrase I paraphrased to arrive at our title is true, for you.
You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, 12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever! – Psalm 30:11-12 NLT
Your mourning can turn into dancing and you can be clothed with joy! It will be a joy to bear some scars, some more tender than others, but your destiny in life does not have to be the walking wounded, no matter what the wound was or when it occurred.
Is it going to be easy? No. Will it be worth it? yes! You can Dance with the Scars, you can be clothed with joy. It’s going to take a miracle you say, that is exactly what we have been talking about all along. A miracle that is possible through the God of the Bible who does them. But, you have to want it and you have to believe it.
Excerpt from “Dancing With the Scars” now available on Amazon.
BARRY STAGNER
Find hope in the middle of suffering. Keep reading in Dancing With The Scars by Barry Stagner.
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