quote:

ORIGINAL: cognitivemagic

Do you suppose that your "sins" are so great that God has "had it with you"? Do you feel that your condition is so bad that you are irredeemable? Do you think that you are alone in your fearful belief that God has abandoned you? Have you become despondent because you feel there is no hope left?

Well, if so, then I have really good news for you: you are in the best possible spiritual position before God.

Why?

Because you are in a condition that God loves most: contrite humility before Him.

But imagine the opposite: that you think that you are well off before God; you imagine that you are something special and deserving of divine favor; darn it, you're the best thing that ever happened in this world; you believe that you are spiritually "better" than others; "Thank God I'm not like that other guy", you might say to yourself.

And this is the condition that is most displeasing to God: pride

"But why", you ask, "does God allow me to feel this way....wouldn't God want me to feel better?"

Perhaps He would....if He only wanted to make babies and infants, instead of "sons" and "daughters".

Consider God's Only Begotten Son: did He have a "good ol' time" in this world? Did He always feel good? Did He not get "sad" and "lonely"? Did He never get thirsty, hungry or cold? Did He never feel rejected? Was He never in pain or physical want? Did He not suffer death?

If the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ has found it fitting that His own Son suffer, who had no sin to suffer for, why should things be different for us? Has the servant now become greater than the Master?

God knows your suffering because He suffered also; and has shown in His Incarnation that, despite feeling rejected and forsaken by God, God does not forsake or reject!! That the Son of God felt as you do is without question....unless you believe that God did not really become man....that God only seemed to be a man, as if His humanity was just a phantasm.

But the Father's heart was always "loving" to His Only Begotten Son....even when the Son felt despised and rejected. The Father knew how fickle our nature was and is; He knew that we would have doubts and fears; He knew that no amount of books and testimonies would convince us that He loves us.

So He gave His Son as a testimony to the anxious, the doubtful, the brokenhearted, the lonely, the despondent, the despairing, the hopeless; in other words, to the "poor in spirit", in order to get it into our miserable skulls that His love never flags or fails towards us.

It was as if God has said, "I know that you feel miserable. Look and see...my Son felt that way too; but I never rejected Him. In fact, He is the picture of what life in this world is like when you follow Me....and if He bore a cross, as my Only Begotten Son, then know that anyone worthy to be adopted into my family must bear a cross also. So do not grow fearful....you're being treated like one of my family".

As the scripture says:

"You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you"---(Deut. 8:5)

and

".....Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it..."---(Hebrews 12)

So, dear friend, do not lose heart; for God is pleased to see to it that you become like Him through suffering. If the Gospel teaches you anything, let it be this: that even if you were perfectly good....even sinless....the Father would still be pleased to allow the crucible of fears, doubts and torments be the means of your salvation; to be His medicine to make you humble and patient....to be His patient.

Remember these words of scripture:

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.."---(Phil. 2:5-9)

and

"God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time"---(1 Pet. 5:5,6)